Published: May 18, 2009 09:49 pm      

Car & Pulaski school bus collide

Somerset — Pulaski County Schools Superintendent Tim Eaton surveyed the scene of a school bus crash on North Ky. 1247 yesterday afternoon with a blend of worry and relief in his eyes.

He checked on the Pulaski County High School students, most of whom were standing in front of Campground Baptist Church wiping tears from their eyes, waiting for friends or relatives to take them home. He talked with the school bus driver and emergency personnel. He made a few calls on his cell phone.

And, in the end, he surmised, “It could have been much worse.”

The 3:23 p.m. collision sent four individuals to area hospitals. One student, 15-year-old Chris Letner, was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center with a rib injury. Another student, 19-year-old Tim Lewis, the bus driver, 52-year-old Dorothy Ratcliff of Waynesburg, and the driver of the vehicle that struck the bus — were transported to Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital for treatment of various injuries. Even more of the 30 students onboard sustained nose bleeds, bumped heads, and other minor injuries.

The bus full of high school students — all counting down four days until summer break — was on its way to Eubank Elementary School, where they would board other buses to get home.

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department says Ratcliff was traveling north on North Ky. 1247 when she was sideswiped by a southbound Chrysler passenger car being driven by 39-year-old Michelle Bland of Somerset.

“We barely felt a little tap,” said 16-year-old Steven McQueen, one of the bus passengers.

Other students described the impact as feeling as if the bus had hit a pothole or a speed bump.

Following the impact with the car, the bus left the roadway, striking a line of large pine trees.

“We looked, and there was a tree dead-on,” McQueen said.

“We only had two or three seconds to brace ourselves before the impact.”

Students say the bus was making a noise and that fluid was leaking from under the hood immediately following the collision.

McQueen and several of his friends, including 15-year-old Kyle Sowders and 16-year-old Johnathon Smith, opened the emergency exit door at the rear of the bus and led others out — fearing that the bus would catch on fire.

Bus passenger Ralph Letner, 17, the brother of the airlifted victim, gave Ratcliff credit for attempting to avoid the collision and for keeping the incident from being potentially worse.

Letner said the bus began to tip over after it hit the car, but that Ratcliff swerved to keep it from landing on its side.

Eaton said most of the students had arranged to be picked up from the site of the wreck on their own following the incident. Those who did not have transportation were taken to Eubank Elementary School on a different bus.

Bland was extricated from her vehicle by members of the Science Hill Volunteer Fire Department and Pulaski County Public Safety Director Tiger Robinson.