Local & State Headlines

Police still reviewing bus crash

• An as-yet undetermined number of students are injured in a multivehicle accident in Miller County.

J.D.Sumner

COLQUITT — At least three school-aged children were reportedly taken by helicopter to Florida hospitals after being injured in a crash that involved a tractor-trailer, at least three cars and a Miller County Head Start bus, witnesses said.

Myrtis Ndawula, CEO of the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council and head of the organization that oversees Head Start operations in 18 south Georgia counties, said that four 3- and 4-year-old children were on the bus when the crash occurred and that one appeared to have a concussion prompting rescue officials to send him by helicopter to a Tallahassee hospital.

“Based on what we’ve been told, four kids were on this bus when this crash happened. Two were examined and released, one had a cut on the leg and one looked to have a concussion and was flown to Tallahassee,” Ndawula said.

Ryan Phillips, the superintendent of the Miller County School System, called the crash tragic and said that he is awaiting word on four Miller County school students who sustained serious injuries in the crash.

“When I went out there, I was told by an EMT that there was a family of four that was pretty badly injured,” Phillips said. “This is unconfirmed, but I was told that two of them had to be flown to a hospital in Tallahassee.”

The four injured Miller County students, who Phillips said were between elementary- and middle-school age, had reportedly just been picked up from school and happened to be traveling behind the bus, Phillips said. As many as four vehicles may have been involved in the crash, he said.

Phillips said that his school counselor had been sent to the Miller County Hospital to provide any help possible and described the scene to him as “chaotic.”

“My counselor called and said it was chaotic down there,” Phillips said. “Most of the people being brought in were being sent to other places.”

Phillips said that the area where the crash occurred, Highway 27 near its intersection of White’s Bridge Road, was a “bad section of road,” because of a hill that crests just before the intersection.

“In my opinion, it looked like the tractor trailer came up too fast over the top of the hill and saw that traffic was backed up and tried to veer off and not hit anyone,” Phillips said. “But he went all into the yards of the homes right there.”

Head Start is a federally funded program for preschool-aged children that helps provide them with social and educational experiences, Ndawula said.

Miller County Sheriff Buddy Glass was at the scene Thursday afternoon providing assistance, sheriff’s officials said, and troopers based with the Georgia State Patrol’s Donalsonville post were working the crash. A total tally of the injured wasn’t immediately available.