ATHENS, Texas — The Athens Police Department has released two 911 tapes in connection with a January 2019 Athens Independent School District school bus crash that killed one and injured two.
The crash, which claimed the life of an Athens Middle School student, remains under investigation.
Athens police released the calls exclusively to CBS 19, in which two witnesses reported seeing the crash occur. One person reported seeing the actual moment of impact on Cream Level Road. The other saw the bus come to a rest near the Murchison crossing.
The transcriptions can be read below:
CALL 1
Dispatch: 911, what's your emergency?
Caller 1: Yeah, a train just hit a bus on Cream Level. It's a- someone needs to come over here a train, just hit a bus on Cream Level.
Dispatch: Yeah, no reports on the bus. Ma'am okay. Is - are there people - are there people hurt on the bus?
Caller: I don't know that's the problem. It just dragged the people, we just sat here and watched it.
CALL 2
Dispatch: 911 what's your emergency?
Caller 2: Yes, a train going west has hit a school bus just past Murchison Street.
Dispatch: Okay.
Caller 2: This is (redacted) at Athens Scuba Park.
Dispatch: A train hit a school bus right past, right past Murchison.
Caller 2: Just took it down. It hit it. I don't know where it hit it. I heard it, and it was like east of Cream Level. And now it has stopped and it's past Murchison Street.