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Student in Bus Crash Dies
03/09/10 - 08:52 PM

Jackson County Floridan

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The student who was partially ejected from a school bus in Monday’s accident near Chattahoochee has died of her injuries.

Lt. Jim Corder of the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office said Deshirrne “Dee Dee” Murray, 15, died of head and internal injuries Tuesday around 5:30 p.m. Central time, after being taken off life support.

The crash off County Road 269A sent several students to the hospital. Murray, the bus driver and one other student were listed in critical condition immediately after the accident.

The driver was identified Tuesday as 40-year-old Gretna resident Timothy Kelly. He and the other seriously injured student were listed as having improved to stable condition as of early Tuesday evening.

No other additional information was provided by Florida Highway Patrol officials Tuesday regarding the accident.

Kelly and two students were taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital with critical injures following the accident off County Road 269A, also known as Lincoln Drive. More than a half-dozen other students were taken to other hospitals with varying lesser degrees of injury.

Authorities said Monday that none of those injuries appeared life-threatening.

Murray was partially ejected as the fully loaded bus plowed into the woods and crashed shortly after 2:15 p.m Central time. Another student was briefly pinned under the driver, who had to be removed from the bus with a “jaws of life” tool.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Ken Ellis said Monday it was not known what caused the driver to veer off the road, but speculated it was likely due to the driver suffering a “health incident” or distraction.

The accident occurred as the bus was heading north into Chattahoochee from West Gadsden High School in Greensboro. Rescue crews from Jackson, Liberty and Gadsden counties responded. Nurses at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads and Florida State Hospital also assisted.

For relatives of some students who were on the bus, the crash brought up an old wound. Some think school officials, ultimately, are to blame for the crash.

If the Gadsden County school district hadn’t closed Chattahoochee High School a few years ago, the students wouldn’t have been on the bus in the first place, Shyekia Dixon said.

The Chattahoochee students have to get up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. so they can catch the bus in Chattahoochee for a ride to West Gadsden High School. The trip takes 45 minutes to an hour, one-way, Dixon said. The two-hour daily commute is bad for the students and unnecessary, relatives said. They believe it’s time for the school board to consider re-opening Chattahoochee High School, or to at least have some public discussion about the idea. It was closed just prior to the 2004-05 school year in a consolidation of the county’s schools. Although part of the high school was several decades old, one portion of it had been built fairly recently.

The relatives say it needs its students back. Having the students on the road for such long periods each day increases the chance of accidents, they said, and exhausts the children before and after the school day.

Meanwhile, school officials are trying to help students deal with the crash. Counselors were made available to them Tuesday.

FCAT tests had been scheduled to begin Tuesday, but the state Department of Education agreed to delay the start for Gadsden until this Thursday. That request was made by Gadsden School Superintendent Reginald James shortly after the crash Monday afternoon.

Shakayla Dudley, a 16-year-old passenger on the bus, planned to rest and recover until Thursday, then get back for the start of FCAT.

Her legs were bruised and her back was sprained in the accident.

She said she was sitting in the middle of the bus on a friend’s lap when the crash occurred. She and her friend weren’t the only ones doubling up that day, she said, because the bus was more than full that day. She was listening to music when she heard someone scream. She looked up to see the bus veering off the road.

“Everyone started flying to the front,” she said. “The driver and two girls were pinned in. Everybody was in shock, at first, and then one boy opened the window in the back and everybody started jumping out. When we hit the tree, we were leaning, and we didn’t know if it was going to tip over or not.”

Dudley said she doesn’t blame Kelly. He was a good driver, she said, and had been driving a long time. According to her, school officials are telling students that he had a medical event while he was behind the wheel.

When Dudley goes back to school, she won’t be riding the bus, at least initially. Because she’s afraid riding it will make her nervous, her father is going to take her to and from school for a while.