Driver in 100-mph chase slams into school bus with 50 kids on board, NC cops say
A car slammed into a packed school bus, ending a 100-mph police chase in North Carolina, officials said.
One of the 50 children on the bus reportedly went to a hospital as a precaution after the crash in Camden County on Wednesday afternoon.
The driver of the car — a BMW — was also hospitalized, according to multiple news outlets and Tiffany Robertson, an administrative assistant for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies didn’t share a name for the driver.
Robertson told McClatchy News in a phone interview that the man had been in a police chase that started in Currituck County, which lies along the coast in the northeastern corner of North Carolina and includes part of the Outer Banks.
The driver was pursued after a N.C. Marine Fisheries officer saw his car speeding, according to officials. During the case, deputies said the BMW reached 100 mph and “sped through two school zones,” WTKR reported.
In neighboring Camden County, a deputy continued the pursuit but backed off over concerns about the driver nearing a high school, The Daily Advance newspaper reported. The high-speed chase stopped when the BMW hit a school bus that was pulling onto U.S. Highway 158 from Gumberry Road at about 3 p.m., officials said.
A photo from the newspaper shows a mangled car with damage to its windshield. The driver — the only person inside the BMW when the crash happened — faces a “felony charge for speeding to elude arrest,” WAVY and WTKR reported.
“The children were visibly shaken,” Kevin Jones, the Camden County sheriff, told WTKR. “We got the children that were not injured and put them off of the bus.”
Representatives from Camden County Schools and the N.C. State Highway Patrol didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for information on Thursday afternoon.
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