ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609160023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HUDDLESTON
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER
A 16-year-old Staunton River High School student was killed Friday morning when the car she was in slid under a stopped school bus.
The student, Tracy Gwynn Arthur, was a passenger in the front seat of the car, which ran into the back of a stopped bus and slid under it on Virginia 43 shortly before 8 a.m.
The bus, carrying 31 Staunton River high and middle school students, had stopped to pick up another passenger when the car hit it from behind, said Tom Paramore, director of transportation for Bedford County schools.
No one on the bus was injured, but Christy Rena Hawkins, the 16-year-old driver of the car, was taken to Carilion Bedford Memorial Hospital. Her brother, Donnie, a passenger in the back seat, was airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Both were treated and released.
Trooper Garland Snead said the bus had its red lights activated and stop sign out on the two-lane road when the car came around a curve. Snead said skid marks indicated the car was going at a high rate of speed and that the driver was trying to pass the bus on the left to avoid hitting it.
No charges have been filed; Snead said he will turn his report over to the commonwealth's attorney for review.
Jim Phares, the principal of Staunton River High School, said a crisis intervention team was on campus Friday morning, but classes were not disrupted. "We dealt with this tragedy on an individual basis," he said.
Phares said the bus driver, Ada Kirby, was an experienced driver and "she's been very good with the kids." The accident, he said, shook her up.
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB