Students thank Georgia hospital's staff year after bus crash

FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA - A group of 14 parents and high school students returned to Georgia to thank hospital workers who treated them and a congregation that cared for them after a bus crash a year ago Saturday. <br> <br> The chartered bus had been carrying students from Massey Hill Classical High School in Fayetteville to a music competition in Florida. All 46 people on board were injured, 12 of them seriously, when the bus went out of control and tipped over on Interstate 95 about one mile from the Florida state line. <br> <br> On Friday, the group returned to Georgia offer their thanks at Camden Medical Center in St. Marys and Kingsland United Methodist Church in Kingsland, where the uninjured from a second bus traveling to Florida collected to wait before returning to North Carolina. <br> <br> Becky McLemore, whose son Cameron was hurt in the accident, hugged each of the hospital&#39;s emergency medical technicians as they stood in a line. <br> <br> Doug Gallop, a high school junior who helped organize the reunion, spent a week in the hospital last year. <br> <br> ``These are the people who helped us after the accident,&#39;&#39; he said. ``I kind of feel happy seeing everyone. It&#39;s really good to see them.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Many of the rescue workers on duty April 6, 2001, came to the hospital for the reunion. The accident happened at about 6:40 a.m., during a shift change at the department, so more emergency workers than normal were able to respond to the crash. <br> <br> Surgical technician C.J. Mathis worked in the operating room where three children injured in the crash had surgery. <br> <br> ``You see road rash and bones and road burn, and you think, &#39;This could have been my child,&#39; &#39;&#39; Mathis said. <br> <br> Students from the bus that didn&#39;t crash and those from the accident who did not go to the hospital were taken to The Warehouse, the church&#39;s youth ministry. Local businesses and restaurants donated food. Wal-Mart offered to replace clothes, shoes or glasses that were lost in the wreck. <br> <br> Melissa Harris, a junior, said being able to rest at The Warehouse after the accident was comforting. <br> <br> The students got there several hours after the crash and most were tired and in a daze, she said. They showered and rested until they were picked by their parents, or until the bus ride home. <br> <br> The North Carolinians thanked the church with a plaque of appreciation and presented a second plaque to the Camden County Fire Rescue Department. <br> <br> Georgia crash investigators have accused the bus driver of falling asleep at the wheel. Authorities charged Darol Wayne Britt with seven felony counts of serious injury by vehicle and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving. The Georgia case is pending. <br> <br> Britt was fined $100 last month by a Fayetteville judge for operating the bus with unsafe brakes. An inspection in North Carolina two days before the wreck revealed the bus&#39;s brakes needed repair. A Georgia inspector who checked the bus after the wreck found the same problems.