School Bus, Tractor Trailer Involved in Crash

SHAW, Miss. - Fog may have been a factor when a school bus and a tractor-trailer collided on a rural Mississippi highway Friday, killing a 10-year-old girl and injuring at least 10 people, authorities said.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Jon Kalahar said the accident happened about 7:20 a.m. He said it appears that the bus had stopped at a stop sign on Mississippi Highway 450 and was turning on to U.S. Highway 61 when it pulled in front of the truck.

Kalahar said the truck driver told investigators he saw the bus and hit the brakes, but couldn't stop in time. Kalahar said the preliminary investigation showed it was foggy at the time and that may have contributed to the crash.

Murry Roark, Bolivar County's deputy coroner, said the student who died was a 10-year-old girl. He did not release her name.

Kalahar said 13 people were on the bus. At least 10 people were injured in the accident and three were taken by helicopter to area hospitals. One Shaw High School freshman, 14 year old Nakeisha Dorsey, was airlifted to The Med in Memphis with head trauma. She was last reported in critical condition. It wasn't immediately clear if all the injured were students. Kalahar said the vehicles flipped over and landed on their sides.

A woman who answered the phone at the Shaw School District declined to give her name but confirmed that it was one of their buses. She said district officials were on the scene and not immediately available for comment. She said the bus was carrying students ranging from kindergarten through high school.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation said the highways were reopened.

In February, a truck driver, a bus driver and a teacher were killed when a semi sideswiped one school bus, then collided head-on with a second one on Mississippi Highway 8. One of those buses ended up hanging partially over the edge of an interstate bridge.

At least 17 Ackerman High School students were injured in the Feb. 8 crash. They were coming home from a senior trip to the University of Mississippi at Oxford.

Killed were trucker Gary T. Bailey, 54, of Mantachie; the driver of the second bus, Steven B. Moss, 37; and Ackerman high teacher Phyllis Graham, 53, of Eupora, highway patrol troopers said.