On Friday, March 27, a school bus carrying middle school students on a school trip collided with a dump truck and an SUV in Tennessee, killing at least two children.
The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that the Tennessee Highway Patrol has confirmed the deaths of two Clarksville-Montgomery County students. Several other people were injured, and multiple people were airlifted to trauma centers in Nashville and Memphis.
“I want to speak directly to the families of the students who lost their lives today. There are no adequate words that can be used to ease the pain you are feeling right now,” Highway Patrol Maj. Travis Plotzer said in a press conference about the tragic deaths. “This is a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Students at Kenwood Middle School in Clarksville-Montgomery County were heading to Jackson, Tennessee, for a field trip when their school bus collided with a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) dump truck and a Chevrolet Trailblazer, authorities said.
Plotzer said the investigation is ongoing, but “I do not believe TDOT had any contributing factors in the crash.”
The two students were pronounced dead at the scene, Plotzer said. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said in a Facebook post that several other people were injured in the crash and “multiple individuals were airlifted to trauma centers in Nashville and Memphis.”
At a press conference, a spokesperson for the ambulance company said nine air ambulance helicopters were requested to the scene, seven of which were used to transport patients. He said patient information cannot be shared.
There were 25 students and five adults on board the bus, two people in the dump truck and two people in the Chevrolet, Plotzer said.
The families of all those on the bus were contacted, and the district escorted them to a church reunion point in Huntingdon, Tennessee.
This is a developing story.
Kenya Anderson is a reporter for the Leaf Chronicle.
