At Terry Middle School in Mesquite, parents showed up to wait as their children arrived, some with cuts and bruises and others with ice bags pressed to their heads, after a school bus crash that left one dead Wednesday afternoon.
"The side of his face is bruised, he could have a concussion," Samantha Conaway said. Her son, Sergio, was among the students injured when the bus crashed Wednesday afternoon.
"The bus started swerving left and right and I flew out of my seat," Sergio Conaway said.
Students said they had no warning a collision was coming and remember only violent swerving followed by a loud crash.
"It (the bus) slammed into an electric poll and started getting smoky and fiery," 6th-grader Ramona Mitchell said.
Mitchell said she was stuck in her seat and it was another student, whom she'd never met, that helped her escape.
"I couldn't do it, so like a stranger I didn't know, a girl, helped me unbuckle and then I ran out to safety," Mitchell said.
Sergio Conaway said he too witnessed a rescue attempt, but unlike Mitchell's, it was unsuccessful. Conaway said his girlfriend attempted to free another young girl stuck in the bus.
"She couldn't because the bus driver had pulled her out and the bus had caught on fire after that," Conaway said.
Parents told NBC 5 they were upset their kids, many of whom were injured, were taken to the school and not straight to the hospital.
"They should have been taken care of immediately," Samantha Conaway said.
The Mesquite Independent School District tweeted Thursday that counselors would be on hand and available for students and staff at Terry Middle School Thursday.
