Creative Task: The Day My School Bus Rolled Down a Hill

Sometimes I like to browse the national news on the internet. I usually just scroll through the headlines in the hopes that something will capture my interest. The other day I stopped scrolling when I read the headline '35 children hurt in schoolbus crash'. When I saw the image of a smashed bus sitting in a field I traced my mind back to the strange day when everything turned upside-down.

Sept. 6 bus crash (NZ Herald)

It happened so fast, with no time to react. I remember seeing grass and daisies squashed under the glass of the windows before the bus came to a halt upside-down. The screaming subsided and everything was still. A silent surreality filled the bus as boys and girls began to clamber out from under the detached seats and scattered schoolbags. Some young children were sitting on what was once the ceiling crying, while others dizzily crawled their feet. With my shoes nowhere to be seen I calmly stood up and walked towards the emergency exit. Maybe I crawled. I can't remember.

Like any other sleepy school morning I climbed on the bus and scanned the faces for Meaghan, who usually saved me a seat. I found her in our usual spot by the window on the left and I sat down next to her and began preparing to have a snooze.

The bus driver was playing that terrible mixed CD again and I couldn't help but laugh.

Playlist
1) Dr.Hook - A Little Bit More
2) Boys II Men - To the End of the Road
3) James Morrison - You Give Me Something

The CD had just reached 'A Little Bit More', my least favourite track, when the bus jolted suddenly to the left. I watched as all the people in front of me were thrown sideways, and I soon followed...

(NZ Herald Oct 2006)

BREAKING NEWS: A school bus carrying around 40 students on their way to school has rolled off the road into a paddock off the Coatesville-Riverhead highway.


When I got off the bus I saw children with dirty faces wandering around looking for their shoes and friends. Cows grazed in the long wet grass, seemingly oblivious to the big red thing that had rolled into their paddock. I found Robert with a bleeding head and he calmly asked me if I was ok. Emergency services and worried parents had already arrived and they began to usher us into ambulances and cars to be checked for injuries at the nearby town hall.

I finished reading the article and thought about how lucky we were that nobody was seriously hurt, and with that I returned to the national headlines.