DOTHAN, Ala. – Authorities say an 11-year-old boy who was riding in a pickup truck has died from injuries suffered when the truck collided in Dothan with a church bus from Kentucky.
Dothan police declined to release the name of the boy Monday. Another child in the pickup truck, described as a 9-year-old, was listed in critical condition.
More than two dozen people were injured when a pickup truck hydroplaned on a wet road and crossed into the path of a church bus, police said.
Police said about 80 members of Centenary United Methodist Church in Lexington were headed from Kentucky to a church camp in Panama City, Fla., on Sunday when the accident occurred. The bus, which was carrying students collided with the truck in Dothan, in southeast Alabama.
"Indications are, right now, that the pickup truck, the driver, lost control of the vehicle, hydroplaned across the median crossover, into the path of the church bus," said Sgt. Tim Ward of the Dothan Police Department.
The crash Sunday sent 22 bus passengers to local hospitals for treatment, but all were released.
The bus was in a three-bus caravan with 74 people.
Most of the students on the bus were treated and released. At least one student was admitted for observation. The bus driver's wife had serious injuries.
Emily Evans, a counselor in the group, said she was in the bus behind the one involved in the crash. She saw the bus lurch forward, then slide off the road as the pickup spun back onto the road.
"I saw the bus and the truck hit. Stuff went flying. People were screaming," she told The Dothan Eagle. "I saw it happen and I didn't know what to think. I couldn't breathe."
Richard Grier, minister of students at Centenary, said the students were "very shaken and disturbed" by the crash.
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