2 STUDENTS DIE IN BUS CRASH
Two students and driver hurt as vehicle dives off overpass
Two Houston Independent School District students were killed and three others injured when a school bus ran off an overpass and landed on an access road Tuesday.
A school bus swerved off a Houston overpass Tuesday, killing two students and seriously injuring the bus driver and two other students.
The Houston Independent School District bus, transporting students to Furr High School, was traveling on the south loop of Interstate 610 around 7 a.m. when the bus driver, Louisa Pacheco, swerved to avoid another car. The bus, carrying four students, land- ed on its side on the access road below.
School officials identified a victim who died at the scene as a 17year-old girl who attended REACH Charter High School, a dropout recovery school on Furr’s campus. A second girl who later died at a local hospital was a 13year-old student at Furr.
The injured students, who were hospitalized, attend REACH charter school.
Investigators with the Houston Police Department said a Houston teacher driving a late-model Buick LeSabre on the left side of the bus thought a car was going to drift into her lane. She swerved toward the school bus to avoid the other vehicle.
“Apparently ... she jerked the wheel to the right,” said Victor Senties, a Houston Police Department public information officer. “She in turn ends up striking the left driver’s side of the school bus.”
Pacheco tried to avoid the Buick, overcorrected and went off the overpass and onto the frontage road below.
Witnesses said the bus nosedived and flipped before landing on its side along the freeway embankment.
“It was almost like watching an action movie. I was trying to wrap my head around it being real,” said Ineasha Romero, a witness.
No one has been charged in the accident, police said.