photo by Evie West
A small passenger bus from Barnwell, S.C., wrecked in Cleveland, Tn., on Friday morning.
The driver and 16 juvenile passengers were all injured and transported to SkyRidge Medical Center by EMS, personal vehicles and a SETHRA bus.
Six of the passengers were being treated and the remaining 11 passengers were being evaluated.
The group was in Cleveland on a week-long missions trip.
The bus was heading north on Freewill Road when the bus left the roadway near Interlackin Circle and came to a halt upon hitting a drain culvert.
Stan Clark of Bradley County EMS said, "Just after 8:30 a.m. Friday morning, Bradley County EMS responded multiple ambulances and support personnel to a reported bus crash on Freewill Road. Initial reports indicated a church bus had been involved in an accident and there were potentially as many as 15 patients.
"When EMS units arrived on the scene all passengers were out of the bus sitting on the grass. Responders immediately began triaging patients to determine the injuries sustained and who needed to be treated and transported first. The bus was in a ditch against a concrete culvert. The front of the bus suffered major damage.
“This was what we define as a mass casualty incident. When there are multiple patients involved we initiate the triage system. This allows us to make a quick assessment and determination of what patients require ambulance transport and those that do not. Each patient is given a triage tag signifying their injury status.
"A total of 15 patients were transported to Sky Ridge Medical Center in Cleveland. There were no critical injuries. All injuries were mild to moderate.
"It is not very often that we work an incident with multiple patients. We do train for mass casualty incidents and today it paid off. All emergency agencies that responded did an outstanding job.”
photo by Stan Clark