MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — A man who showed signs of marijuana use, cut off a school bus from Kingman and made it crash on I-10 in Marana Tuesday—that’s from a charging document against Nicolas Luis Rodriguez.
The Kingman school superintendent says when other drivers saw children in trouble, they stopped to help.
35 students from Kingman School District headed to Tucson for a conference for young business leaders. They were almost to the end of a six hour trip when there was trouble.
DPS says Nicolas Luis Rodriguez veered his SUV suddenly into the bus’s lane and hit the corner of the bus.
As the bus driver fought to regain control the bus crossed three lanes, ran into the median, fell on its side and slid about fifty feet.
Of 35 students, four staff, and the driver, three people had serious injuries. One person’s hand was amputated.
Troopers tested the bus driver and Rodriguez. They found the bus driver was not impaired but Rodriguez was. They say he tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Now he’s facing three felony charges of aggravated assault.
Kingman’s school superintendent Gretchen Dorneris grateful there were only three serious injuries–and she’s grateful for the story she heard from the bus driver—of drivers who saw children in trouble and hit the brakes, to pull over and help.
”He talked about total strangers helping get kids off of the bus to console those who were, you know, struggling or injured on the side of the road. Making phone calls. You know, a lot of the phones were strewn about and, you know, lending their phones to students to make calls to their parents, any way shape or form, someone could be supportive or helpful, it happened yesterday on the side of I-10.”
She says local hospitals went beyond basic medical care with things like stacks of pizza to comfort the traumatized students.
Superintendent Dorner says most of the students are home in Kingman now though some were fearful about boarding another bus. Now she says her school district is working to help students heal from the trauma of those terrible moments on Interstate 10.
