LONDON, ONT. — Dozens of students en route to a two-night field trip in Point Pelee were aboard a school bus that crashed along Hwy. 401 near London on Sunday morning, shutting down the westbound lanes for hours.
The students from Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate, a high school in Kitchener, left Sunday morning for a two-night trip with their Gr. 9 geography class. Some believed the driver had a medical episode just before the single-vehicle crash.
“I was in the very back of the bus and it was all a blur,” said 13-year-old Charlotte Weldon, one of the 42 people, mostly students, who were aboard. “The bus ended up going sideways in the ditch. We opened the emergency hatch in the back and everyone was helping everyone get out.”
It was about 9:40 a.m. on Sunday when the Ontario Provincial Police say the school bus crashed, closing the westbound lanes of the 401 at Westchester Bourne, east of London. Police said highway ramps were also closed at Veterans Memorial Parkway.
London Free Press photos from the scene showed the bus in a grassy ditch beside the highway, laying on its entry-door side. Police say four people were taken to London hospital with minor injuries. Police also said the driver, a 52-year-old Waterloo-area resident, died at the scene, though they could not confirm the cause.
Police opened an “emergency operations centre” at East Lions Community Centre, at 1731 Churchill Ave. in London, for “parents to attend to pick up passengers” of the bus.
Students and their parents spoke with Postmedia News outside the community centre. Maddie Knight was on board with her twin sister, Lily. She recalled the incident as “definitely scary” and said she believed the driver had a “medical episode” just before the crash.
Said her mother, Linnea Knight: “It was not the morning we expected. Maddie called her dad (and) we got on the highway so fast.”
The investigation was ongoing as of Sunday afternoon, police said. Anyone who witnessed the crash was asked to call the Middlesex OPP at 1-888-310-1122.
