Updated 3:55 p.m.: The victim in the Ga. Highway 36 fatality has been identified as 21-year-old James Alexander Cooper of Covington.
Cooper attempted to make a left turn on Ga. 36 from his house, 12510 Ga. 36, when he pulled into the path of an oncoming bus.
Cooper was killed in the resulting wreck. Of the 16 students on the bus, one had a complaint of injury, according to GSP spokesman Gordy Wright.
Wright said no charges will be filed in the accident.
Updated: 3:05 p.m.: Students were released to their parents who came to the scene, said NCSS public relations director Sherri Davis-Viniard.
Another bus was dispatched to the scene to transport the remaining students home. There were 16 students on the school bus during the accident. There is also significant damage to the bus.
Updated 2:45 p.m. : There is one confirmed fatality at the scene of the school bus accident. Oliver said one person was killed in the car that was involved in the bus accident.
All students on the school bus are unharmed. Details are pending on the identification of the fatality pending contact of next of kin, Oliver said.
Gordy Wright with Georgia State Patrol said the accident was a head-on collision between a passenger car and the bus.
A school bus accident with injuries on Ga. Highway 36 has reportedly blocked traffic near the High Point area, according to officials with the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
Sherri Davis-Viniard, Newton County School System’s director of public relations, said a school bus transporting students from Indian Creek Middle School was involved in the crash near the intersection of Moore’s Road on Ga. Highway 36.
“All students have been checked by emergency personnel at the scene. It is believed the occupants of the other vehicle may have sustained possible serious injuries,” Davis-Viniard said.
Deputies with the NCSO and Georgia State Patrol are on the scene investigating the accident.
NCSO Lt. Tyrone Oliver said more details will be released as they become available. Oliver said Ga. Highway 36 near the High Point area is shut down and traffic is being rerouted.
Traffic going south from Covington is backed up to High Point Baptist Church, which is just south of the intersection of Ga. 36 and Flat Shoals Road/Henderson Mill Road.
Alternate routes are difficult in the area, but Henderson Mill Road continuing south could be one alternate, as could Flat Shoals Road to (left on) Channing Cope Road to (left on) Rocky Plains Road over to Ga. Highway 162.
