Motorcycle driver killed during crash with school bus identified
GIBSON CO., Ind. (WFIE) - Indiana State Police tell us crews responded to a deadly crash involving a school bus and motorcycle Tuesday morning.
Dispatch says that happened near the intersection of State Road 64 and County Road 950 East near Oakland City.
ISP was called in for reconstruction.
Officials tell us there were no injuries reported on the school bus.
The Gibson County coroner says the driver of the motorcycle, who was killed, is 54-year-old Francis William Perry, of the Oakland City area.
The East Gibson Schools Superintendent, James Wilson, tells us eight students were on the bus - one high school, one middle school, and six elementary.
Even though nobody on the bus was injured, he says it’s a nightmare of a phone call.
“I was just hoping it would turn out as well as it possibly could, but it was a call I really never want to get again,” says Wilson.
He says thankfully the transportation director was in the area and hopped on to talk with the student to keep them calm.
Wilson says his transportation director arrived on scene moments after the accident to calm the kids down and arrange for another bus to come pick them up.
Wilson himself arrived on scene shortly after.
Once the kids were safe and secured, he made arrangements for counseling to be available.
“Kids deal with trauma in different ways. I called all the parents of the students that were on the bus to answer pertinent questions and to just let them know there’s nothing more important than the safety of our kids,” says Wilson.
The superintendent says there are professionals at the school to talk to, and each of the students were allowed to either stay at school or go home.
It’s a call he never wants to receive again, and those calls to parents are ones he never wants to make again.
“We’ll of course do our best to get them what they need,” says Wilson, “I just really hate that it had to happen.”
According to the coroner, we’ll have the official cause of death once the toxicology report comes back, which he says could be roughly 6 weeks.
Indiana State Police say they’re still investigating the cause of the crash.
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