Our Classmates React To
Lee High School Bus Crash
(From The Hutnsville Times) Four Lee High School students - Christine Collier, Nicole Ford, Tanesha Hill and Crystal Renee McCrary - died after their bus plunged about 30 feet off an elevated I-565 on-ramp Monday morning. Eight other students plus the Laidlaw Transit bus driver, Anthony Scott, were still in Huntsville Hospital late Wednesday afternoon. Three of the teens are in critical condition.
The bus was on its way to the school system's Center for Technology when it apparently collided with an orange Toyota Celica driven by a 17-year-old Lee student. The bus, carrying 40 students, flipped over the low concrete retaining wall.
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Our first notification came from Escoe German Beatty, Class of '65 - There has just been a bus from Lee High comming back from the Tech Center on Drake that crashed head first off the 565 overpass on to Church St. At least 30 have been taken to the hospital Don't know about casualties but unconfirmed possible 2 deaths...Channel 19 is suppose to have a streaming news broadcast on the net if you want to check it out...This is such a tragedy but because of our "connection" with Lee thought you might want to know.
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Woody Beck, Class of '65 quickly replied to the notice - Gracious! Thanks for passing the item along.
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Gary Metzger, Class of '64 - Just got the terrible news as I was checking e-mail. The town must be in shock. Tommy, thanks for all that you do!
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Chip Smoak, Class of '66 -
Dear FamiLee:
I am sure that we are all thankful that only two students were killed.
This accident could have resulted in many more fatalities, possibly all aboard. I am also sure that each of us is praying according to our individual faiths for the families that lost the two students and for the students who were injured and their families.
Let us also pray that the doctors and other caregivers are provided wisdom to treat the students for their best possible recovery, whatever their injuries may be, and for a swift recovery.
May God comfort the students and their families and especially the families and friends of the two fatalities. They certainly have our condolences.
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Gary Hatcher, Class of '66 - It is hard enough to hear about losing those that we went to school with, but is tragic to hear about our young FamiLee losing their lives in this tragic accident. My prayers go out to all of the families and all those now a Lee.
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Dawn Larson Bettenhausen, Class of '64, living in Fremont, CA
Tommy, Thanks for sending the WHNT link. I first heard the story on the six o'clock news out here. They didn't name the high school, but it brought back a lot of memories of the day our bus went down the embankment and wrecked. An hour later I opened your e-mail and found that this, too, was a Lee High School bus; the students weren't as lucky this time. I remember parents being upset that school buses had no seatbelts then; apparently, they still don't.
Thanks again for keeping me in the loop. No matter how many years it's been since I've seen it, Huntsville will always be my home town.
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Arnie Anderson - Grieving with all my Huntsville friends about what was on the front page of THE OKLAHOMIAN this morning. Condolances to the striken families. Please all of you ahev a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. GOD BLESS YOU EVERYONE!!!
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Susie Schlette, Class of '66 - Thanks so much for forwarding this article to me. I learned of the accident on the national news last night as I was fixing dinner but didn't realize the students were from Lee. Just a tragedy.
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Jerry Dorriety, Class of '70 - We can only imagine the grief and horror of the parents of the kids killed or injured in the Lee High bus accident on Monday. Also, the kids will have to deal with very complex emotions and grief.
Can you find out if there is any fund set up in Huntsville to help families hurt by this? I'm sure a lot of the alumni of Lee High would like to do what they can to help out. Perhaps if there is something like this you can spotlight it in the newsletter. At the very least, we can all remember them in prayers.
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Carol Jean Williams Carroll, Class of '65 - Thanks so much for sending notification to our alumni about the school bus crash yesterday. As many of you know, I still live very close to Lee and also to the crash site. This is a parents' worst nightmare! Our grandson, Josh, that we have raised since he was 17 months old, is a freshman this year. He is attending New Century Technology High school, instead of Lee.
For the.two previous years he went to a magnet school for technology and rode the bus. I think anytime parents send their children off with someone else - they say a prayer.
Several of the young people on the bus, Josh knew and had gone to school with. Today we found out that three of the boys have been friends of his since childhood. Fortunately, they were not hurt badly. Of course, everyone in Huntsville is in a state of shock and the students at Lee are reeling!
There has been a fund set up to help the students in the crash at a local credit union. Do you think we could work something out on the web-site where we might donate collectively from the classes of 64-65-66? (just a
thought) Please continue to pray for these students, their families and for the other students and faculty at Lee. This accident is something we never thought could happen in our town and especially not our school! Love and care for your families and friends every day because we don't know what the next moment holds.
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