More than a dozen people were injured Wednesday morning in a wreck involving a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools school bus, officials said.
Medic, Mecklenburg County's EMS agency, initially reported 17 total injuries, including one that was considered life-threatening. The person with life-threatening injuries was not a student, CMS said in an email. The district said 14 students and the bus driver were transported to local hospitals.
The bus was carrying students to South Mecklenburg High and had 15 students on board when the incident happened at about 6:30 a.m. on Sharon Road near Sharonbrook Drive. Officials at the scene told WSOC-TV that the crash involved the bus, a small car and a dump truck. A Medic employee told the station that first responders were able to quickly get the students off the bus.
The bus driver had been pinned in the vehicle and was freed by Charlotte firefighters, Medic said.
“What we focused on was the removal of the dump truck driver and the CMS driver," Charlotte Fire Battalion Chief Michael Gerin told reporters at the scene, according to Queen City News. "Due to the high impact we encountered some problems just in the sheer nature of the force and the amount of metal that was around the driver. It took us about 30 minutes for us to get the CMS driver out and about an hour to get the dump truck driver out.”
We’re getting a better look at the wreck. You can see all the debris on the ground. Medic tells us it has possibly 18 patients. Some parents tell me their children are being evaluated right now. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/5pigG6RPj7
— Anthony Kustura (@AnthonyWSOC9) May 11, 2022
"Our prayers are with those folks that are in hospitals right now," Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said on WFAE's Charlotte Talks.
This is a developing story.
