A 13-year-old boy is dead after a school bus full of kids blew a tire and flipped on a South Carolina highway on Thursday, authorities said.
Two other students were injured in the crash, which occurred when a bus carrying middle schoolers home from a field trip had a blowout, careened into a guardrail, and bounced onto its side on an interstate in Lexington County, according to WBTV in Charlotte.
The bus had been carrying around 35 children and three adults. Eleven people were rushed to the hospital and five were in critical condition, the outlet said.
The county coroner later reported that Jose Maria Gonzales Linares, an 8th-grade student at Pine Ridge Middle School in West Columbia, had died.
The bus was one of three school busses traveling southbound on I-77; no other vehicles were involved in the crash, authorities said.
“Today’s school bus accident in Chester County is a tragedy no family should ever have to endure,” South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said in a statement. “Please join us in praying for the victim, their family, [and] a speedy recovery for those injured.”
