COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia police are investigating how a bus ended up running off the road into a backyard in a Columbia neighborhood.
Neighbors in a Columbia neighborhood were met with a startling sight Friday afternoon, when a school bus carrying students from Dutch Fork High School veered off Gauley Drive and crashed into a backyard, stopping just a few yards from a pond.
Columbia Police reported no serious injuries among those on board, which included a driver and a number of students. Dutch Fork is a part of Lexington-Richland School District Five. A spokesperson for the district says EMS assessed everyone on the bus at the scene, but no one needed to be transported to the hospital.
The bus, operated by Lexington-Richland School District 5, left noticeable tire tracks in the grass and on the road, marking its path. The bus appears to have gone down a hill, running off into a backyard which leads directly into a nearby pond. Neighbors described the scene as shocking but expressed relief that the outcome wasn’t worse.
“I looked out the window, and there’s a bus across the pond in my neighbor’s yard,” said Leslie Grogan, who lives just across the pond nearby. “It was just kind of shocking at first, and I was so thankful when I heard no one was injured."
She, along with her husband Steve Grogan, were both home at the time of the crash. They say cars can come quickly down that hill the bus drove off of, which leads straight into a pond.
“To turn off that road, go over that hill, and not roll over... they did a good job,” he said.
The homeowner whose backyard the bus ended up in was not home at the time. She said she learned about the crash when someone rang her Ring doorbell to tell her, and she's thankful the accident wasn't worse.
In a statement, School District Five said:
"A bus carrying students from Dutch Fork High School was involved in an incident on Friday, December 13, 2024. The staff and students were examined by EMS on site and no one required transport to a medical facility. Everyone was moved to a different bus and taken to their normal drop off sites. Staff and student safety is always School District Five’s highest priority. District officials will continue to investigate the details of this incident in cooperation with the Columbia Police Department."
The Columbia Police Department continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.