Thirteen-year-old Cassidy Robinson was waiting to board her school bus on a fog-shrouded morning when she spotted a semitrailer truck heading straight for the stopped bus and car behind it.
"The bus stopped, the car stopped, and the truck didn't," she said after the truck crushed the car and ripped open the back of the bus Monday.A family of four in the car and a high school student in the bus were killed. Eleven other children in the bus were injured, as were the drivers of the bus and truck. Cassidy escaped injury by running when she saw the accident was about to happen.
By afternoon, the flag at Laconia High School was flying at half-staff in memory of 15-year-old James Spencer, who had been sitting in the bus' second-to-last row. The truck slammed into the car, smashing and shoving it under the bus before plowing into the back of the bus.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday identified the other four victims as Thomas G. Boomsma, 40; his wife, Sharon L., 42; and their children, 11-year-old Owen and 9-year-old Chelsea. They were from the Randolph area in nearby Dodge County
The bus carried students ages 7 to 15 from the Rosendale-Brandon School District, said sheriff's Sgt. Mike Thome. Some of the students were going to a school only a few miles up the road on two-lane Wisconsin 26, about 60 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
"It's spooky, but where we live it's a way of life," said Tom Robinson, Cassidy's father. "I always taught them to watch for cars and she did good, she heard the semi wasn't stopping and she ran."
The 11 children hurt in the crash were treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released. The man driving the truck and the woman driving the school bus were also treated at a hospital and released.
The crash was under investigation and police had not decided whether any charges would be filed.