Forty seven Gwinnett students in charter bus crash

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By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A charter bus carrying 47 Gwinnett County high school students collided with a vehicle on I-75 in South Georgia Sunday afternoon, injuring at least one person aboard the bus.

Courtesy of WSB-TV Twenty people aboard a charter bus carrying Gwinnett students were hospitalized after the vehicle crashed in South Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

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A person was airlifted to a Macon hospital and 19 others were taken to hospitals near Dooly County, where the crash occurred, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

The Harmon Brothers Tour bus was carrying 52 people from Mill Creek High School in Buford, said Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the state patrol.

A spokeswoman for Gwinnett County Public Schools said there were 47 students on the bus. "The school has notified the parents," said the spokeswoman, Sloan Roach.

The crash happened around 3 p.m. at mile post 116, said Wright. It forced the closure of two interstate lanes.

The crash happened when traffic in the northbound lanes slowed and a rear-end collision occurred ahead of the bus. One of the vehicles from that crash was pushed into the path of the northbound bus, Wright said. The bus driver swerved, and the bus went up an embankment and struck an overpass.

The person airlifted to Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon was in stable condition, Wright said. He told the AJC around 9:30 p.m. that the hospital said the patient "was up and walking."

There was no word on the condition of the 19 taken to hospitals near the crash, but Wright said they were taken for medical care as a precaution.

The rest of the students were taken to the Dooly County Sheriff's Office to await pickup by another bus.

Roach, the Gwinnett schools spokeswoman, said the school system dispatched a bus to collect them.

The collision occurred in a construction zone, according to 13WMAZ, a TV news station in Central Georgia. It was in an area where three lanes converged into two, the station reported.