By paNOW Staff

Tanker truck collides with school bus south of Melville

Oct 16, 2010 | 7:29 AM

Murray Wood

CJME

The driver of a school bus is dead after it collided with a tanker truck, 15 kilometres south of Melville on Highway 47, about 4:15 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Melville Fire Chief Tyrone Mogenson tells News Talk Radio that there was extensive damage to both vehicles — both went into the ditch. The tanker was hauling diesel fuel at the time.
Mogenson says that the female bus driver died. RCMP say the 52-yearold woman was from Goodeve and was declared dead at the scene.
Four children aboard the bus were taken to hospital in Melville. Mogenson says they sustained cuts and bruises and possibly broken bones, but he can't speak to extent of any injuries.
“They were all doing quite well when we sent them off to hospital,” he said, adding the students are from the area.
“They're close to home, family basically, in fact some of my guys on the crew here knew the kids and what-not and were talking to them.”
Mogenson says it could have been much worse.
“It had the potential to be a heck of a lot worse than it was, for sure, considering it was a school bus … it was one of those things we didn't know what we were responding to — an empty bus or a full bus.”
Reporter George Wooldridge with the Melville Advance says both the school bus and tanker truck were in the ditch and that the engine block of the school bus was “basically torn off” with more damage along the roof.
RCMP have closed that section of Highway 47 while accident reconstructionists examine the scene.