ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — It was early Saturday morning at the base of a hill in Economy Borough where a crash happened that rocked the Aliquippa community.
PHOTOS: Emergency crews respond to school bus crash involving Aliquippa football players
“The initial reports were catastrophic. We talked about mass casualty. Once the information became more clear, we had a couple kids with concussions, we had a fractured wrist, a student with a dislocated shoulder, student that required two to three dozen stitches down his back and a broken leg,” said Dr. Phillip Woods who is the Aliquippa Superintendent.
All those students and coaches traveling to Pine Richland for a Junior High football scrimmage when the bus crashed into a pole. On Monday, only one girl on the team remains in the hospital.
“The mother reports that the surgery went well, the individual’s in good spirits and alert and family is just trying to limit traffic into the hospital so that student can take the time to recover and heal,” Woods said.
Now the priority is turning to the well-being of the students back at school, Woods said multiple agencies from across the county were in the school building to help students and families.
Those agencies include: Beaver County Behavioral Health, Beaver County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Behavioral Health Response Team, Beaver County System of Care, The Prevention Network, school counselors and athletic trainers.
“There were a couple students we had sessions with that came to school today that some of them stated they didn’t want to get on the bus just worried about the bus and we are just trying to listen to them,” Woods said.
Woods said the bus company is working to get the bus footage of what happened for the police investigation and return the students’ belongings, but right now, the district doesn’t plan to change any policies following the crash.
“So at this point, with the information I have, I can’t identify that we would do anything different or make a policy change. It was an accident, we had adults on the bus, coaches following as support, so I don’t know what else we could do,” Woods said.
The district will determine the next steps for the team’s schedule. Woods said everything is cancelled this week, but depending on the number of concussions and the mental health of the other students, that may continue into next week.
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