{"id":438,"date":"2006-11-21T05:54:41","date_gmt":"2006-11-21T11:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=438"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:38:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:38:50","slug":"down-here-hope-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=438","title":{"rendered":"Down Here Hope Remains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"huntsville-bus-wreck.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Our city is still reeling from the aftershocks of yesterday’s tragic school bus accident on I-565.<\/a> A city school bus carrying 43 Lee High School students to a local technical training center plunged off an overpass near downtown after being clipped by another car driven by a Lee High student passing on the right.<\/p>\n

The bus skidded along the guardrail and apparently hung there briefly before falling onto the ground below. The bus hit nose first and then rolled, the students in the back of the bus falling forward onto the students in the front. Two students, Christine Collier and Nicole Ford, died at the scene. A third student, Tanesha Hill, died later at Huntsville Hospital. There were numerous injuries and around half a dozen students remain in critical condition according to news reports (more related stories and photos can be found here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Police, state and federal officials are busy reconstructing the events which led to the wreck, but for those involved, the deconstruction of their lives is both permanent and profound. Adding to the poignancy, one of the girls who died, Nicole Ford, had been shot in the face four years ago and had undergone extensive rehabilitation so that she could return to school and learn the skills that would enable her to help raise her 4-year-old son.<\/p>\n

Amid the tragedy, we scratch our heads and wonder: why didn’t more die? As the photo above by Huntsville Times<\/em> photojournalist Bryan Bacon shows, the damage to the front end of the bus from the 30-foot plunge was incredible. What is less plain from this shot is how intact the rest of the bus remained. Since it fell nose first, the front of the bus took the brunt of the hit, while the rest of the frame was bent but remained intact from the subsequent roll. Had the bus fell at a different angle, hitting the ground from the side, the loss of life would have most likely been greater. Suffice it to say, school buses are built tough.<\/p>\n

And for that matter, so are high school kids. It was amazing watching the live feed and seeing so many kids who had just been flung about the inside of a school bus like a load of laundry in a spin cycle walking around, calling their parents on their cell phones and comforting their injured classmates. One young man knelt tenderly at the body of one of the young ladies who was killed, no doubt intent on standing vigil until someone arrived to bear her away.<\/p>\n

And then there are the first responders and health care providers–frankly, we’re all so proud of them that we’re bursting at the seams. As a health care provider, I’ve often rolled my eyes at our repetitive drills and mass casualty exercises that we have to check off from time-to-time, but yesterday stood as a stark reminder of why we go through such motions.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that the paramedics, firefighters and police saved lives in those critical first moments with swift professionalism and steely resolve. From there, the doctors, nurses and technicians at Huntsville Hospital and Crestwood Medical Center went into hyperdrive, turning a scene of potential chaos into the best of possible outcomes for many of the injured and their families. This morning, I am proud of these people and proud to call myself a Huntsvillian.<\/p>\n

As we approach Thanksgiving, we indeed look around and realize that things could have been much worse and are thankful that they weren’t. This sense of relief is small consolation, though, for the families and friends of the deceased and severely injured. Our community will continue to come together and assist those involved as they make their way through this dark time. Tragedy always brings out our better angels it seems, and it’s a good thing that it does. May the good will and humanity which overflow in these next few days and weeks remain in our community well beyond this period of grieving and repair.<\/p>\n

Down here hope remains that such miracles are possible. And after witnessing yesterday’s events, who’s to say that they aren’t?\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our city is still reeling from the aftershocks of yesterday’s tragic school bus accident on I-565. A city school bus carrying 43 Lee High School students to a local technical training center plunged off an overpass…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,70,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-health-care","category-huntsville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9868,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/9868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}