What should have been an exciting day for a group of middle school students quickly turned into a devastating tragedy on a quiet stretch of Highway 70 in Carroll County, Tennessee.
On Friday, March 27, a school bus carrying students from Kenwood Middle School to a competition collided with multiple vehicles — leaving a community in shock and two young lives lost.
A day meant for celebration
Every parent hopes their children can get to school safely each day. But accidents do happen — and when children are involved, it makes the tragedy all the more heartbreaking.
The students from Kenwood Middle School had spent months preparing for this moment, building an electric race car from scratch for the Toyota Hub City Grand Prix Greenpower USA Race in Jackson, Tennessee.
They had been looking forward to showing off everything they’d worked so hard on— but in an instant, life took a terrifying turn near the intersection of Highway 70 and Cedar Grove.
Their bus crossed into oncoming traffic and slammed head-on into a Tennessee Department of Transportation dump truck. A Chevrolet Trailblazer was also involved in the crash.
29 people were on the bus, including 24 Kenwood Middle School students, four adults, and the driver, Sabrina Ducksworth.
Authorities are still investigating what caused the bus to drift over the double yellow lines, but Tennessee Highway Patrol Maj. Travis Plotzer described the scene as “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Parents witness the unthinkable
In a heartbreaking twist, some parents were traveling behind the bus and saw the crash happen in real time.
Xaviel Lugo and his wife, Rosalee,
Their daughter was on board.When the collision happened, Xaviel pulled over immediately while Rosalee ran toward the wreckage. Together, they began helping students out of the bus before emergency responders arrived.
“People were crying. It was loud. It was chaotic,” Rosalee told KKTV.
“The people in the back just thought that this was just a minor crash. They were telling everybody, ‘Just be calm.’ They didn’t know how bad the front was, but I could see from where I was standing that people were slumped over. There was blood on the floor.”