ST. JAMES, MISSOURI (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
High school students returned to school Thursday in St. James, Missouri, for the first day of school, just a week after a deadly bus crash on Interstate 44. The accident killed student Jessica Brinker, 15, and pickup driver Daniel Schatz, 19. The last two students injured in that accident were released from the hospital earlier this week. The buses were full of students from John F. Hodge High School on their annual band trip to Six Flags in Eureka, Missouri. As many as 50 students total were on the buses.According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, at the time of the accident, traffic in the eastbound lanes of I-44 was backed up in the right hand lane, due to highway construction in Pacific. The Highway Patrol says a GMC pickup rear-ended a Volvo semi tractor in the right lane. The driver of the first school bus was carrying the girls from the high school marching band. The driver saw a vehicle on the right shoulder and moved over to the left lane to avoid that car.
While the bus driver was checking her mirrors to make sure it was safe to return to the right lane, she did not see that the GMC pick-up had hit the semi tractor. The first bus then hit the GMC pick-up and the semi truck. The second school bus, carrying the boys from the high school band, then hit the back of the first bus.
