Father and son relive Elkhart school bus crash

NOW: Father and son relive Elkhart school bus crash
NEXT:

ELKHART, Ind. -- Eight students are now on the mend, after a bad school bus crash in Elkhart, Wednesday morning. 

"I was talking with my friend and then all of the sudden, my face hit the seat. There's stuff in the seat, so my face got a little bruised," recalls 11-year-old Elijah Watson. 

Watson was shocked, and didn't know what was happening at first. 

"I look up, and I see the full front of the bus is smoking," he remembers.

He wasn't expecting his commute to school, to come to a crashing halt.

Neither was his dad, Chris, who was on his way to work at the time.

"I saw police officers speeding down 2nd Street. I turned on my scanner, and I heard there was a bus accident involving my son's school bus," he says. 

Elkhart Police say, a person driving an SUV ran a red light.

The school bus then hit the passenger side of the car. 

Six kids were transported immediately two Elkhart General Hospital.

Two others were taken in, after they arrived at school.

"I felt a little scared, but I was still trying to comfort my friend," says Ellijah.

The adventure wasn't over for him, just yet.

Although he originally was okay'd to go back to school, things took a turn.

"He started to exhibit signs of a concussion with a headache and feeling sick to his stomach," says Chris.

After a trip to the emergency room, Elijah was diagnosed with a minor concussion.

He's now beginning to recover, both physically and mentally."

I'm definitely scared to go on a school bus, especially around that intersection where the bus got hit," says Elijah.

Chris agrees, and says he's been worried about that intersection for a long time. 

"Anybody who drives through Elkhart knows to wait at that green light, because cars driving down Jackson generally don't stop," he adds.

But Chris also believes there should have been some safety measures on the school buses. 

"Seat belts on buses, we need them," he explains. "If it hit any father down, it could have easily tipped that bus over, and those kids could have easily been thrown around."

Elkhart Police tell ABC57 the unnamed driver of the SUV, who ran the red light, will be cited. 

All of the children have been released from the hospital. 

Share this article: