Pocono News Section

School Bus Crashes into Home

School Bus Crashes into Home - Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:00AM EST

Reported by: Eyewitness News
Monday, Sep 14, 2009 @ 11:00am EDT

HUGHESTOWN, LUZERNE COUNTY -- A school bus crashed into a home on Parsonage Street around 7:00 this morning. The driver escaped with only minor injuries. Nobody in the home was hurt and no kids were on the bus at the time.

"Thank god there was no children on there - thank god," says neighbor Rose O’Hop.

She looks at the bus that crashed into her neighbor's home on Parsonage Street in Hughestown in disbelief. She was shocked by the loud noise she heard Monday morning.

"I was in the bedroom getting ready for work when all of a sudden I heard a loud explosion that sounded like - I rain out my door - I thought maybe someone hit the wall because I saw a truck slow down, but when I looked to my right, there was a bus in my neighbor's house," she told Eyewitness News.

Hughestown police tell Eyewitness News that Kimberly McGinty of Pittston was driving her Yatesville Bus Company school bus down Center Street when the bus apparently stalled.

McGinty lost control of the bus, then crashed into a stop sign, utility pole, and ended up on the front porch of Theresa Blasavage's home at 376 Parsonage Street. Fortunately there were no children on board.

Hughestown Fire Chief Jamie Merlino said, "When we got here, we noticed there is structural damage to the house, the porch roof is unstable because it did knock out 2 supports, almost 3 supports to the porch roof, the poll is completely sheared off."

As tow crews pull the bus from the front of the home, the fire chief adds that everyone is lucky that there were no serious injuries.

“[The homeowner] seems to be okay. We talked to her before, she seems a little stunned, but obviously if a bus was in my front yard, I would be to, you know right now she seems to be ok," he added.

The bus driver was taken to the hospital to be checked out for a neck injury but she was expected to be okay.

Parsonage Street in Hughestown was closed for a time between Center Street and Clarks Road as crews attempted to stabilize Blasavage's home.