Semi truck slams into school bus as first kids of the day climb aboard

A semi truck crashed into the back of a school bus making its first stop of the day in Tennessee on Monday morning. 

The accident happened on September 15th on IS 25E just outside of an apartment building in Hamblen County, Tennessee. 

According to the Citizen Tribune, bus driver Sharla Conklin was making her first stop of the morning with her stop sign and flashing lights activated when a semi truck hauling wooden sheets crashed into the back of the bus without hitting the brakes. The force of the collision pushed the bus forward before any children could get inside. 

One child  “said he was getting ready to step up on the bus and then the bus started moving,” Conklin said “It knocked his shoe off.”

“I didn’t know what had hit me until I got off the bus,” she said. “My first reaction was to get on the walkie but all the power was out and I just saw smoke. I thought ‘I’m getting the heck off this bus.’”

“The parents ran to check on me,” she continued, but said that no one went to check on the truck driver. “How do you miss this? You could have hurt me and these kids,” she said.

The truck driver, Brandon J. McCrary  was eventually able to exit his truck himself and was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Conklin was taken to the hospital with symptoms of whiplash. No children were hurt in the accident. 

“Thank God it was my first stop of the day and there were no kids on the bus,” Conklin continued. 

McCrary was charged with reckless driving, failure to exercise due care, and overtaking a stopped school bus. No further information has been released.