19 students, 1 adult injured after school bus hits tree in Memorial area

HOUSTON – Nineteen students and one adult were transported to four hospitals Tuesday morning after a privately owned school bus hit a tree in the Memorial area.

The accident happened when the bus driver lost control and struck a tree in the 9500 block of Briar Forest at Tanglewilde, according to the Houston Fire Department.

Students who were heading to Paul Revere Middle School say they were riding down Briar Forest when the bus driver suddenly slumped forward. The bus then ran over a curb and crashed into a tree in the median.

Twenty-two people were on the bus at the time of the accident. Some of the children went flying across the seats on impact.

"There was a lot of blood on students," Mararyal Baraya, a seventh grader, said.

"Some people got their eyes hurt, some people got nose bleeds and mouth bleeds," another student, Muhammad Forquan, said.

Twenty victims, including the driver, were taken to four hospitals, HFD said.

All of the patients from the crash were discharged from the hospitals by Tuesday evening.

The view from Sky 2 showed dozens of emergency personnel on the scene, helping to load the students onto stretchers.

Police are investigating several factors that may have caused the bus accident, including mechanical issues. The bus driver told police that something happened to the steering wheel.

Local 2 Investigates cameras at the scene appear to reveal police investigators inspecting a rusty bench seat on the bus that pulled away from the floor. Some of the tires on the bus appear to be well worn.

Although the bus itself listed Nancy's Bus Service, according to a Department of Transportation database, the crashed bus, which is 17 years old, is registered to Rachell's Bus Service.

The headquarters for both transportation companies appear to be at a southwest Houston apartment complex.

Local 2 Investigates found that 12 separate buses are registered to the same address through a variety of different transportation companies.

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