Texas High School Football Team's Bus Flips

ROYSE CITY, Texas – A school bus carrying junior varsity football players to a game overturned Thursday afternoon. A dozen people were taken to hospitals.

Royse City Police Chief Tom Shelton (search) said two or three players suffered serious head injuries and about a half-dozen had minor injuries, the Dallas Morning News reported in its Friday editions.

"I was just sitting there watching the cows in the pasture go by," said Hunter Dickson, a 15-year-old sophomore. "Next thing I knew the bus was flipped over. I was just saying 'God help me through this.' "

Dickson, who had a bump on his head and some soreness in his neck, walked out of Lake Pointe Medical Center (search) in Rowlett in his socks. His shoes were on the bus.

Television footage showed at least eight Royse City (search) players, dressed in their uniforms, lying on the ground near the bus and being treated shortly after the accident.

"My hand was against the glass and three people fell on top me," said Mark Mayo, a 16-year-old sophomore who suffered contusions and had a black right eye. "I shattered the glass on my face."

"I fell and my head was against the roof. Then my friend fell on top of me," recalled Justin Herschberger, 16. "I'm still in shock. This whole thing is surreal." His friend was taken to Parkland. Like Dickson, Herschberger had a bump on his head.

Royse City Superintendent Mike Harris said everyone got off the bus safely.

"We certainly dodged a bullet. The good Lord was with us tonight," he said after checking on players at Lake Pointe.

The most seriously hurt were flown to Parkland Memorial Hospital (search) and Baylor University Medical Center (search) in Dallas. Students with lesser injuries were taken by ambulance to Lake Pointe Medical Center in Rowlett, the newspaper reported.

Lake Pointe CEO John Harris said most of the injured at his hospital were reporting shoulder, neck and back pain.

"The good news is, all of these young men seem to be in relatively good condition," he told the Morning News.

The 77-passenger bus was carrying players to a game with Nevada Community, said Tammi Loveless, transportation secretary for the Royse City School District.

Twenty-five sophomores and juniors, and two coaches were on the bus when the wreck happened on Farm to Market Road 1777, a two-lane road without a shoulder. One of the coaches was driving the bus for the seven-mile trip.

James R. Willis, 36, of Forney, told authorities that he was navigating a curve when he felt the bus' back wheels stopped treading ground, said Lonny Haschel, as spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

The bus rolled on its right side, leaving part of it blocking the roadway in rural Collin County, northeast of Dallas.

Harris said the coach was certified to drive a bus.

"It was sliding off the road sideways," Mayo said. "Everybody was screaming all of a sudden."

Students kicked the glass from the bus' back door to get out, Mayo said.

DPS is investigating the wreck, Haschel said.