Forty-two other people were injured after the bus carrying a football team hit an overpass bridge on Highway 74 in Richmond County near Rockingham Saturday afternoon, WSOC reports.
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A preliminary investigation by the State Highway Patrol found that the front left tire blew out while carrying the football team from Ramah Juco Academy in Rock Hill, S.C., sending it swerving into the median guardrail sideswiping a concrete bridge column.
Lieutenant Jeff Gordon with NC Highway Patrol said 46 people were on board the bus when it crashed.
Most of the players went to Clinton College in Rock Hill.
Kirkpatrick, the bus driver is from Chester, SC. Victims Devonte Gibson and Darice Hicks were from Rock Hill and and Teto Hamilton is from Pahokee, FL, according to troopers.
Troopers say most of the players on the team came from Clinton College in Rock Hill. Per WNCN, both teams are comprised of junior college students who attend two-year schools that don’t field football teams.
Gibson and Hamilton were students at Clinton College, which canceled classes Monday and brought in grief counselors, said Robert Copeland, vice president for student affairs.
The wreck happened about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Charlotte.
Images from the scene showed the side wall of the bus nearly sheared off and some of the injured lying on the ground.
“I got up on the guardrail and was grabbing people and getting them off as fast as i could because everyone was kind of in a panic”, he said.
Another player, Tyreak Thompson, tells wbtv.com says he was half-asleep at the time of the crash.
Gordon said it could take months before investigators reconstruct the accident and finalize their findings.
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“This is nonprofit organization formed for the sole objective of giving under-privileged students another opportunity to excel academically, athletically and find a college that fits both their academic and athletic quests in order to prepare for the next level”, the website reads.
