School bus crash Friday sends two students to local hospital

Multiple students were hospitalized Friday after a school bus crash in Durham.

According to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the bus was hit by a Buick on East Geer Street near Summerlin Road around 3:47 p.m..

Highway patrol said after the collision bus came to a rest partially in a ditch on the right side of the road. The Buick stopped in the road, resulting in a temporary traffic backup.

Phillip Turner, who works in the area where the crash happened, said he heard it before he saw it.

"The car went off in the gravel and the bus skidded off and went into the ditch," Turner said.

When Turner and his wife got to the scene, which was a block away from where they work, they said the bus was leaning so much that children fell off into other seats and on top of other children.

The bus was carrying 26 students from the School of Creative Arts. Turner disconnected the bus' battery, which was smoking as a result of the crash, and helped the kids get off the bus.

"They were all shook up and pretty scared," Turner said.

On Saturday, Durham Public Safety clarified that two students were taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Turner said his biggest concern was how long it took for emergency services to arrive to the scene, and told WRAL News it took ambulances "an hour and half" to arrive.

WRAL News asked State Highway Patrol and Durham EMS why it took so long to get ambulances to the scene.

State Highway Patrol said the crash was dispatched as having no injuries. Troopers called for ambulances at 4:20 p.m. after arriving at the scene.

Ambulances didn't arrive until 20 minutes later, which Durham County EMS said was because of the remoteness of the crash.

The driver of the Buick, Tommy J. Koshada, 46, of Bahama, N.C., was charged with careless and reckless driving, drive left of center, fictitious registration, no insurance and driving while license revoked.