In the town of Petoskey, Michigan, parents, the Sheriff’s office and high school administrators are breathing a big sigh of relief following an accident involving a sport utility vehicle and a charter bus carrying the Petoskey High School boys’ basketball teams. There were no injuries reported to any of the players or anybody else on the bus, and the basketball coach says that things could have been much worse.
According to officials with the Wexford County Sheriff’s office, the bus had been chartered to carry the high school’s boys’ varsity, junior varsity and freshman boys’ teams back and forth to the school after their team had finished playing games against the teams from Cadillac High School.
It was just after ten o’clock at night, and according to Dennis Starkey, the High School varsity boys’ basketball coach, the bus was driving on Michigan’s U.S. 131, an area just outside of Cadillac. Starkey said that the driver of a sport utility vehicle apparently sped up and tried to pass the team’s bus. The SUV quickly lost control in conditions that were described as “terrible” and spun out. It hit the guardrail and then bounced back into the lane of the bus, hitting the larger vehicle on the passenger side, by the side door.
The force of the accident’s impact caused both the sport utility vehicle and the school bus into the highway’s median, where both came to full stops. The conditions at the time of the accident were described by the Sheriff’s office as being “blizzard-like”, and both vehicles were left resting in heavy snow.
The basketball coach had nothing but praise for the driver of the team’s vehicle. “Our driver did a heck of a job and it could’ve been a lot worse. I thought for sure we were going to roll.”
The basketball teams were required to stay on the scene for several hours as police investigated and cleared the accident. They returned to Petroskey High School on a school bus that the Cadillac Area Public School system provided.
Though nobody on the charter bus was injured, the driver of the sport utility vehicle was reportedly taken to Munson Hospital; no information has been provided about his injuries or condition. The Sheriff’s office has indicated that there is a possibility that alcohol may have played a part in the crash.