Rock Thrown Off Overpass Hits Bus Driver

KALAMAZOO (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Some students from Grand Rapids experienced a terrifying ride home Saturday during a school field trip, when someone hurled a rock through the windshield of their school bus.

The bus driver says the rock came off the bridge at Kilgore Road over I-94, as the bus was traveling at full speed.

Thankfully, the driver was able to get the bus under control with 34 people on-board, mostly 8th graders from MLK Jr. Leadership Academy, even though the rock hit him in his chest.

Principal Jerry McComb was on the bus and saw it all happen, and he says he believes somebody threw the rock at the bus on purpose.

"We can only assume, we didn't see anybody. These just don't fall out of the sky," said McComb.

While the driver says he has a little pain, but he's doing okay, and the students were shaken, Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Bernard Taylor says he's outraged.

"When you endanger the life of a child over foolishness, you deserve to pay a very steep price for it," he said.

Principal McComb wants the person responsible to be caught, but what happened in the aftermath of the incident has him even more concerned. He says the students and injured driver on the bus had to wait on the highway for an hour before somebody to came to help.

"The response was terrible," said McComb. "Only thing they could tell us is they had four different locations where we were. From my cell phone, I (was) the only one who called 9-1-1 where we were."

McComb and the district were also concerned when responding officers didn't take the rock as evidence. Instead, McComb held onto it for safe-keeping.

"Just slid in this rubber glove and brought it on back with me," said McComb. "You could have ruined a lot of lives there. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be really leary when I go under the overpass. I really am."

Newschannel 3 checked with the Michigan Department of Transportation, who says the rock definitely didn't come loose from the bridge.

The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety didn't comment on the response time, and wouldn't say whether the spot on I-94 is a problem area for people dropping rocks.