School bus crash has parents looking for information about extreme weather protocols

CTV’s Gerry Dewan speaks to a child aboard the school bus that crashed near Woodstock as his mother wants to know why buses were running during severe weather.

A student says kids were tossed around inside a school bus that landed in a ditch outside of Woodstock Wednesday morning.

The bus was carrying about 40 elementary school children.

Grade 8 student Greyson Landry, 13, was one of the East Oxford Central Public School students in a Langs school bus as it swerved on an icy road, “She went to one side of the road to the next, then back and then into the ditch pretty hard.”

And he said the rough ride wasn’t done there, “First we hit forwards against the seat, and then everybody goes to the right side of the bus.”

Greyson immediately noticed injuries to students sitting near him, “One that had a cut on his palm and one that had a cut on his head.”

Greyson immediately called his parents and they arrived shortly after.

His mother, Meagan Landry, said there was panic in his voice, “He must have hung up and called me back like four or five times. He said, ‘Be careful, mom! Be careful, Mom! It’s slippery! People are falling!’”

Another student directed Greyson to open the rear emergency door and he did. Still, he was worried about the extent of the injuries on the bus, “If I’m looking to my right and I see two kids that are hurt, out of four, I don’t know how many kids are going to be hurt up at the front, especially if they’re little or standing up or whatever.”

Meagan is still unsure if buses should have been running. As early as Tuesday evening, police and others were warning of possible freezing rain.

Meagan said that the stretch of gravel road on Old Stage Road, where the bus left the road, was particularly slick, “Just past the four-way stop, where the pavement turns to gravel, it was just an ice rink out there.”

The Landrys are hoping to have a discussion with officials from Langs about this incident and about how decisions are made when it comes to driving in extreme weather.

According to Meagan, “Maybe there [should] be some more criteria in place for in particular the rural roads in the country, roads that are assessed prior to the busses being dispatched in the morning, just so everybody’s kept safe.”

My Big Yellow Bus is a non-profit transportation consortium for the London District Catholic School Board and the Thames Valley District School Board. They distribute information on their website and through social media.

According to information provided on the website, individual bus companies decide whether to run or not.

That decision is made by 6:30 a.m. to ensure caregivers and students can be informed.

Meagan says other bus companies did not run in the Woodstock-area Wednesday morning.