WEIGH SCALES - A county commissioner whose car was almost hit by electrical wires that fell across a school bus along Route 61 Thursday said the power was cut before the driver or children exited the vehicle.
Northumberland County Commissioner Vinny Clausi, who said he was the first one on the scene of the freak accident a few miles north of Shamokin, urged the driver and children not to move until someone from PPL arrived to address the situation.
Clausi, recounting the incident Friday, said the outcome could have been much worse had other vehicles run across and possibly yanked the wires, which he said included a powerful, 480-volt cable. He shook his head while he thought about the circumstances, recounting how he stopped his car just a few feet short of the wires while traveling in the opposite direction on the four-lane highway.
"I think it was God" who stopped possible tragedy, he said.
Nothing confirmed
No other authority was able to confirm Friday that PPL cut the power before the students exited, and it was not clear at the scene Thursday. One father contacted The News-Item Thursday evening to say his daughters, ages 5 and 7, thought they felt a minor shock when they exited the bus. He criticized adults at the scene for allowing students to leave the bus instead of staying inside, where they were safely grounded by the rubber tires.
On Friday, Teri Macbride, regional community relations director for PPL, said it is unknown when the power was turned off.
"We're doing a review of the sequence of events and what happened at the scene," she said.
Ralpho Township Police issued a report about the incident, but it did not indicate if the power was turned off before the children were told to leave the bus. Patrolman Chris Dailey, who was in charge of the investigation, could not be reached Friday for further details.
The report did say, "due to the sudden weather change (winds, rain and sleet) and the pole dangling, the children were immediately evacuated from the rear door of the bus."
Meanwhile, Clausi said Friday he saw a PPL employee arrive and was certain the power was off before emergency responders began helping children off the bus.
'Sit still'
He admitted his first thought was to use the back door to help the children exit, but, as a contractor, thought twice, considering the chance for electrocution. Instead, he repeatedly told the driver, Dawn Carsto, and the children to sit still and not touch anything. He said the driver and some of the children were crying.
Clausi said he positioned his vehicle sideways across the highway when he came upon the situation and was waving his hands to alert oncoming motorists to stop.
Shamokin Police Chief Ed Griffiths, who said he arrived on scene while students were being evacuated, was confident in the actions taken.
"If there was any type of danger, we would have never taken them off," he said Friday.
Once the students were evacuated, it started raining and hailing, so they were placed inside police cruisers and ambulances to get them out of the weather.
Shamokin Superintendent Jim Zack, who was joined at the scene by middle/high school principal Chris Venna and business manager Steve Curran, said Friday the district would look into the problem further, but said he had no issue with the bus driver or the evacuation.
While students and drivers practice for bus evacuations, there is no protocol on what to do in such an odd situation, he said.
"Emergency personnel were on the scene making decisions. I support them; they're the experts," Zack said.
It took less than a half-hour from the time the bus stopped until the students had reboarded the same vehicle and were en route home.
Truck caught wires
Carsto was headed north in the area of the Split Vein Coal Co. at approximately 3:30 p.m. when a tri-axle dump truck on the grounds of the coal plant caught wires with its bed. The bus was on the east side of the highway, opposite Split Vein, but the tug from the truck bed snapped a utility pole at its base on the east side, causing what the wires to drape across the road.
The driver was not identified in the police report. Police said he was unharmed.