Mom describes school bus bounce that sent daughter to hospital

At least one student was taken to Sault Area Hospital with non-life threatening injuries after an incident involving a school bus carrying children to Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School Monday morning.

Colleen Schell said her daughter and a male student were ejected "sideways" from their seats at the back of the bus after the vehicle jumped a curb while turning onto Shannon Road.

“My daughter flew across the aisle and hit the seat on the other side, then fell to the floor. She’s got pain everywhere," Schell said.

She said the bus continued to Holy Cross School, after which each parent was contacted about the incident. Schell said she took her daughter, who is in Grade 7, to hospital where she was examined and released and returned to school with no broken bones.

Schell said she believed two other students were taken to hospital, then released.

“What I have been told is that the bus hit a patch of snow in the road and the bus bounced. I believe this is what happened here . . . we’re still looking into what exactly happened,” said Jen Biddinger, a spokesperson for bus company First Student, speaking to SooToday from Cincinnati, Ohio.

“The bus went over a large bump and there were some children who did suffer some minor injuries in the incident,” said Rose Burton Spohn, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) director of education, speaking to SooToday.

Burton Spohn said neither Sault Police or EMS ambulances attended the scene.

“To the best of our knowledge none of them were serious injuries and all of those children were cared for as required, whether it required them to check in at emergency and be released, they were cared for.”

In January, Transportation Minister Marc Garneau announced that the federal government will be looking into whether existing school busses across Canada should be retrofitted with seatbelts.

“The vice principal, Corey Gardi, did a great job of contacting all the parents of the students who were on that bus, to make them aware an incident had occurred, and even if the students had not indicated if they had any injuries or not, he wanted to let the parents know. He was able to speak with every parent involved or leave a message to have them contact him back,” Burton Spohn said.

“He spoke with each student who was on the bus just to check in on them to make sure they were doing okay . . . our prime concern is the safety of our kids and we’re pleased with how Mr. Gardi handled the situation at the school.”

Burton Spohn said the board contacted the Algoma & Huron-Superior Transportation Services office, which coordinates busing of students in the Sault and Algoma region, as well as school bus company First Student Canada, in order to conduct an investigation into the incident.