Photo by Evie West, Cleveland Police DepartmentThe driver of a church bus and 14 teens on a mission trip from South Carolina were injured Friday morning when the bus crashed on Freewill Road in Cleveland, Tenn. All aboard were transported to SkyRidge Medical Center in Cleveland.A small church bus carrying 14 teenagers and a driver crashed in Cleveland, Tenn., Friday morning, sending everyone aboard to SkyRidge Medical Center.
The group of kids were from Hagood Avenue Baptist Church in Barnwell, S.C., and are in Cleveland for a weeklong mission trip with Ocoee Outreach. The bus was heading north on Freewill Road when it left the roadway and hit a large concrete drain culvert.
"I'm not exactly sure what happened to cause the wreck, but the driver said he went off the road a little bit," said Evie West, spokeswoman for the Cleveland Police Department. "But I have never seen a scene like that."
West said she arrived at the wreck around 8:30 a.m. to find teens crying, with scratches and blood on their faces. The youths had to be extricated by firefighters through a window in the van, she said.
The scene could have been extremely chaotic, but neighbors and first responders did a great job of keeping the youths calm and helping the ones who were afraid, West said.
"I was just really, really impressed with the neighbors and first responders," she said. "Neighbors were bringing the kids blankets and having them sit down, first responders were triaging and giving Band-Aids and gauze. It all went really well."
Stan Clark, spokesman for Bradley County EMS, said there were no critical injuries, but that multiple ambulances and support personnel arrived at the wreck scene.
"It is not very often that we work an incident with multiple patients," he said. "We do train for mass casualty incidents, and today it paid off."
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592.