Updated 9.59pm
FOUR STUDENTS HAVE been hospitalised in Co Cork after a schoolbus transporting secondary school students overturned this morning near Fermoy.
52 students were on board at the time of the accident. Two students were brought to Cork University Hospital for precautionary reasons, while two more are being treated for minor injuries.
The bus overturned on the Ballyhooly to Fermoy road this morning at about 8.20am. Staff and teachers from all three schools assisted at the scene.
Two students were reportedly trapped on the bus but were eventually freed unharmed by emergency services, while the bus driver is being treated for shock.
Gráinne Curtin, one of the students who escaped uninjured, told Newstalk Lunchtime about the accident.
“He tried to turn, and we flipped into a field,” she said. ”Everybody dropped to one side.”
Gráinne said the bus driver smashed a window, allowing the children to escape.
“I was really scared,” she continued, “I kinda felt helpless because there was some people stuck for a little bit longer.”
Eileen Gowan, the mother of two children at the school, told Lunchtime it was a “horrific” incident.
“My husband came in for the keys of my car at quarter past eight, he didn’t want to tell me at that time. He went down, I don’t know where he went, until my other daughter came in to tell me there was an accident.”
Eileen’s daughter was brought to hospital with bruising on her neck. Her son was alright but shaken.”
Principal of Coláiste an Chraoibhín in Fermoy, Christy Healy, in it was “very lucky that nobody was seriously injured.”
His statement continued:
We immediately established an emergency response centre in our PE hall in Coláiste an Chraoibhín. Emergency counselling services have been made available to the students involved.
All students on the bus were treated for shock and have been taken home by their parents.
An Garda Siochana and the Road Safety Authority have both launched separate investigations into the crash, and we await the outcome of both investigations.
A statement from Bus Eireann confirmed that the bus in question was sub-contracted for its school transport services.
The bus is operated by Glenferry Coaches.
The cause of the accident has not yet been established and is currently under investigation by the gardaí. However Bus Eireann stressed that the Fermoy region had experienced “adverse weather conditions” this weekend.
The road has been closed and witnesses report a number of emergency service vehicles attending the scene.
The road will remain closed for a technical examination.
Originally published 8.49am. Additional reporting by Cianan Brennan, Michelle Hennessy, and Nicky Ryan.
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