SUFFOLK, Va. — Four days since a Suffolk School bus flipped on its side with 12 students on board, some of those students are still recovering.
The crash happened on Cypress Chapel Road around 9:30 Monday morning while en route to Southwestern Elementary School. Suffolk Police said there were minor injuries.
One mother whose son was on board tells us her son's injuries were more than "minor."
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, recounts her son's story of what happened.
"He said it was really close to the edge and I had a really bad feeling. He goes 'and all I remember I hit the window and then I hit the floor and then I hit the ceiling,'" she said. "After it stopped, he goes, I was telling everybody it was okay. He said 'I noticed my shirt was ripped' and he said 'I put my hand where the hole was,' he goes and 'I saw blood' and he goes 'I screamed.'"
The 10-year-old’s mother said that’s when first responders took him to to CHKD.
"He asked me if I knew who the person was who was in the ambulance and I said I didn’t know who he was, but he said that he wanted to thank him because he was calm and he was kind and it made him feel less scared," she said.
Though both the school division and police department said all of the injuries were minor, she said her son had emergency surgery.
"He had a chunk of skin removed from his lower back where bone was exposed," she said. "He also has a surgical drain in there right now to drain the wound and then he has several stitches in various areas in his back, as well, from where the glass was in there."
She went on the explain what the surgeon told her.
"He said that it was the equivalent of a human power wash to clean out the wound because there was asphalt and gravel and dirt and grass and anything that you could possibly find on the ground ended up in my son’s back," she said.
She said her son is back home resting now, but they still don’t know what caused the crash.
"I’m not placing blame on anybody at this time until we get the full story," she said. "The trust just isn't there right now and obviously, I don’t know the situation. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if it was a mechanical failure, so this is all purely from a mother perspective of, for me, that trust isn’t there right now."
She said she just wishes she’d known what happened sooner.
"It’s upsetting that it was almost an hour before I’d gotten notified and even then I found out through social media."
She said she’ll be driving her son to school when he’s able to return.
"He did ask us, not ask, he begged us to not make him ride the bus anymore," she said. "I think it’s going to be a little bit before he wants to step foot on the bus right now."
She also thanked the first responders and the family who took in her son and the 11 other students until help arrived.
"It’s hard as a parent to know that your child was scared and had this terrifying thing happen and you weren’t there," she said. "The family who took the kiddos in, I am indebted to them and I am forever grateful for them because what they did meant so much to my son. The compassion and the hug that they needed in a terrifying, an absolutely terrifying time for them."
Her son has another doctor’s appointment next week to hopefully get the wound drain out and move one step closer to returning to school
We’ve reached out to Suffolk Police and the Suffolk School Division to learn more about the potential cause of the crash, but have not heard back.