'Insane.' Brookfield mom recalls fiery school bus crash in front of her home, thanks first responders
Brookfield police said a van rear-ended a school bus carrying middle school students home, then burst into flames, but there were no major injuries.
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A routine school bus ride home ended with a crash and a van engulfed in flames in Brookfield Monday afternoon, but fire officials said, remarkably, no one was seriously hurt.
Police continue to investigate after they said a van slammed into the back of a school bus on Candlewood Lake Road just after 3:15 p.m.
It happened in front of Andrea Ruiz's home. Ruiz was in her kitchen, cooking and waiting for her 13-year-old son, who was on the bus and preparing to get off.
"I hear a huge sound. It was a crash. And I was like, 'What is happening here?'" Ruiz recalled. "The crash was insane. I was scared. I was running, and I was screaming, 'Where's my son? Where's my son?'"
Thankfully, Ruiz's son was OK, as were the roughly two dozen other students from Whisconier Middle School who were on board and evacuated.
With the kids shaken up and the van on fire, Ruiz welcomed everyone into her home as they waited for help to get there.
"All of them were screaming, yelling, and they were scared," Ruiz said, commending the bus driver for calming everyone down.
When firefighters arrived, everyone was out of the bus and van, but the unoccupied van had rolled a short distance into a nearby wooded area, catching it on fire, said Chief Derek Broadmeyer. Crews put out the flames and dealt with a large fluid spill, according to Broadmeyer. DEEP was also called in for the cleanup, he said.
EMS evaluated everyone in both vehicles and no one needed to be taken to the hospital, Broadmeyer said.
The bus involved was from All-Star Transportation.
"Thanks to the quick-thinking actions of our driver, we were able to safely evacuate the students onboard the vehicle at the time. There were two resulting minor injuries, but we are happy to report everyone is safe," a spokesperson for the company wrote in a statement.
"I was thinking the worst, but thank God, everything is perfect. All of them are fine. My kid is fine. All of them are safe," Ruiz told News 12.
She said she's grateful for the response from fire, police and EMS, along with school officials, who arrived on scene.
"All of them were incredible," Ruiz said. "It was amazing."
