Bus Wreck of Sept. 6th, 2017

Our girls' team took first at Region the day of the accident.

 Boy's cross country team. Two qualified for state.

Steve Peterson was the driver and split second hero.

Officials marveled that there were no casualties and only one 

with major injuries considering the magnitude of the accident. 

Sept. 6: Bethany got the last district vehicle DONE!  I had a trip to Orem with the X-country team and she drove for me this afternoon.  Darrel came up so we could do a temple session while the team competed.  When I came out of the temple I had a text from Paula Bateman.  It said, “We heard about the terrible bus accident.  We are so sorry.  Is there anything we can do?”  My heart sunk!  I felt nauseated and dizzy.  Immediately I concluded the accident had involved Bethany and that the future of her children was in jeopardy.  I called Paul, Bethany and Kim with no response.  Just when I was near despair, Kim called form the accident scene and reported that Bethany was fine, but being right behind Bus 990 when it crashed.  She was an eye-witness and was an hour late getting the students home.  The relief I felt was physical.  I was able to get composed enough to drive the team home from Orem.  That evening we sat up late with Bethany while she worked through the should haves, could haves, and what if’s of the ordeal.  Steve Peterson was the driver and was badly injured, but he is alive.  There will be months of reconstructive surgery on his face, but he had no broken bones below the neck and no brain damage.  Doctors operated on him for over 3 hours tonight to remove more than 50 pieces of shrapnel from his face.  L  Bethany had a good, healthy outlook when we parted for bed.  She commented, “These kinds of things are like lightening.  They strike and then are gone, never to strike in that way again.   I am including her report of the accident. 

“As I was driving across the ridge prior to the accident, I noticed a slight, odd movement in the northbound lane just as I was passing the granary turn off. I soon saw that it was an SUV pulling trailer house that appeared to be losing control.  I looked at the bus ahead of me hoping the trailer would miss it.  In the amount of time it took me to look from the SUV to Steve’s bus, the trailer swung out in front of him and exploded on impact. His bus turned at an angle off the road and went straight off into the field. There was a large cloud of dust and I could not see it temporarily. By the time the dust settled I had brought my bus to a stop, turned on my hazards, and was securing my bus. I got on the radio to call for help and explain what had happened. I heard someone on the radio asking if anyone could understand what I had said. They asked Candy if she could hear me. I then dropped the bus mic and reach behind my seat for my personal phone to call 911. I gave dispatch my name, my bus number, told them the situation and told them that we needed officers immediately and an ambulance.

Around this time I noticed 990's doors open and the kids poured out of the bus.  Some of them seem to be disoriented and ran straight for the highway. Someone who had stopped, got out of their car and ran out to meet them before they reached the highway.  They encouraged them to go back to the other side of the bus where all of the other kids were gathering. I heard someone calling for Steve on the radio and he did not respond. I started talking to my own students, trying to calm them down. Some of them had family members on 990 and we're very distraught. A large number of my high school girls and one of my high-school boys came forward into the elementary kids talking to them and comforting them.  They offered their personal phones so that the others could call their parents. There were a few cars that began driving around me like they thought they could get home if they could just get around me. I turned on my loading lights and open my door in an effort to stop them from coming around me as the road was completely covered in debris. Seeing the dilemma,  a diesel pulled out into the middle of the road and parked, slowing them down. 

I remember talking to Kim on the radio and she told me to reference my black handbook and follow District procedure. I looked for a way to get my bus load of kids out of that situation. I could not find any way to get around or to back up and go another way. The trailer wreckage was all across the road and Steve was off the west side of the road. On the right side of the road I could see that there were a few people driving through the field to get around the accident, but didn't dare try that option in a loaded bus.  I looked at trying to back out and but I had the diesel parked in the middle of the road behind me. Seeing no way out, I kept talking to my kids trying to calm them down until officers and an ambulance arrived.  A few people that had stopped, walked up past the bus and asked what had happened.  They asked if everyone was okay.  I couldn't give them a very good answer I had no idea what shape the kids or Steve was in. I did notice however, that Steve did not get off the bus. Someone in a dark pick-up drove past in the bar pit on my right going pretty fast I think they might have been an off duty officer or medical personnel. Officers stared coming in from my side of the wreck and Levan ambulance pulled in a short time later.

By then Bonnie had come in her bus from Mona.  She came on my bus and we talked briefly.  Then she pulled up to load the middle school kids that had been on bus 990.  About this time the ambulance drove past on my right, headed for the Hospital with Steve. Soon after the firemen arrived,  I told a couple of my high school kids not to let anyone off the bus while I ran up to ask if there was any way they could clear a path for me to get through the wreckage and get the kids home. I noticed that they were bringing the kids from 990 back towards my bus.  At that point I took two of the students onto my bus.   Before leaving the site I had a father come up and take three kids off my bus.  I did not recognize him, but the three kids clearly did and were thrilled to see him.  I signed for the two I had taken from Bus 990.  The firefighters had finally cleared a path.  By then, Radawna had arrived in an empty bus.  She loaded the students who had been released by the medical team. Kim helped her back up a little, and she pulled through the wreckage. Then Kim helped me pull through the wreckage.  I dropped her off next to the fire truck and headed for Levan. Radawna and I stopped at the construction site a short way down the highway where they are adding a turn lane, as there were a few parents there anxiously looking for their children. I let two children off there. Then we continued to Levan and made our various stops.  I was about an hour longer than on a usual day."   Bethany