A school bus and car collided in front of Perkiomen Valley Middle School West, Wednesday morning, killing one person who was in the car and injuring a second.
No one on the bus was seriously hurt -- five students with minor injuries were checked out at the scene by the school nurse, according to Michelle Brown, a spokeswoman for the school district.
Sandra Myers said her daughter texted her just after 7:30 a.m. about the crash.
"She said they didn't really hit that hard and…everything was handled very carefully, professionally," said Sandra Myers, the mother of a student on the bus.
The car was in bad shape -- it looked like it had been hit with a giant sledgehammer.
"It appears that the school bus attempted to turn left into the middle school in front of the path of the Honda Civic," said Lt. David Buckley of the Pa. State Police.
Frederick Poust, the 38-year-old bus driver, slowed to make a left turn into the school, police said.
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The accident shut down Rt. 73 between Swamp Creek Rd. and Simmons Rd. as rescue crews worked to get to the two victims who were trapped inside the car.
Richard Taylor, 27, the car's passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The car's driver, 41-year-old Freddy Carroll, was airlifted to Hahnemann Hospital to be treated for injuries that police said were serious, but not life threatening.
Taylor, whose nickname was Tripp, had just returned to the area after attending the University of Arkansas.
"You never think that your baby is going to be gone," said his mother Shirley. "It's just not right because he had his whole life ahead of him."
"He just lights up everyone's life," said his father Dan.
The Johnsons hope accident investigators can find the cause of the crash, not to place blame, but to have closure.
Additional counselors were called in to the school to help students cope.
