The day started off as normal for most of us. Photojournalist Dion Hose and I had been assigned to the Madison County Commission meeting. Soon after arriving I got a phone call. The station told us to go to the hospital, there has been a bus accident.
Dion and I ran down the Madison County Courthouse stairs to the car. We made it to Huntsville hospital before any of the ambulances arrived with patients from the bus crash. At the time, I still didn't know what kind of bus, how many passengers or any details.
Then I found out it was a bus filled with Lee High School students. My heart dropped. I almost cried. I felt so much pain for the students and their families.
The bus carrying students from the high school to the Huntsville Center for Technology crashed with another car and plunged of an I-565 overpass and landed near Church Street in downtown Huntsville.
Eventually, the first ambulances started arriving to the hospital. It was very chaotic. People continued to travel down Madison Street in front of the emergency room. I just wanted people to stop turning down the road. I thought to myself, don't you people know there has been a bus accident and people need medical help right now. So in my liveshots, I asked that people take alternate routes-just stay away from the area overall. Huntsville Police were doing all they could to keep the traffic stopped so ambulances could get to the hospital.
One after another ambulances arrived with patients. The paramedics dropped off students and turned around to go get more. On the air we told parents to go to Huntsville Hospital's cafeteria where they had set up a place for parents to find out about their children. Seeing parents arrive to the hospital was tough. You could just see the fear in their faces as they ran into the hospital.
Once on the inside you could hear screams from parents when they found out the condition of their child-some would never get to speak to their children again. I wanted to cry with them.
The ambulances eventually stopped coming and all the passengers were being treated.
We talked with survivors who didn't have a scratch from the accident. It was a relief to hear their stories, but there were many more sad stories.
Today, we talked with more survivors. I told the girls we interviewed today Morgan Harkey and Patrice Gopher we were very worried about them and glad to see them in such good spirits.
Some of you may wonder how we (journalists, photographers, emergency workers, etc.) keep it together in times like these-I will tell you it is very hard. Some people have asked me since Monday if I was about to cry on the air. Yes, at times I did get a little choked up. I must say though that I am human just like you. I just hope and pray the rest of the surviving passengers in the hospital will pull through and all involved will find peace in the aftermath of this disaster.
