Buses traveling to Carowinds crash on I-85. Students, driver hospitalized, police say.
Seven students and a driver were hospitalized when two buses bound for Carowinds crashed on Interstate 85 in Gastonia on Friday morning, police said.
One of the charter bus drivers was cited for failure to reduce speed, according to a Gastonia Police Department news release.
About 85 students and staff from Richard H. Gettys Middle School in Easley, South Carolina, were aboard the buses for a band field trip to the theme park south of Charlotte, police said.
One of the drivers braked in heavy traffic and was rear-ended by the other driver about 9:40 a.m., police said. The collision sent one of the buses into woods, where first responders used ladders to reach the emergency exit windows and free everyone.
The driver cited in the crash was hospitalized with apparently non-life threatening injuries, police said.
The seven students who were hospitalized had minor injuries, “mostly bumps and bruises,” police said in the news release.
Everyone else on the buses got a pizza lunch at Bradley Community Center, compliments of the city of Gastonia, city spokesman Bill McGinty said.
