Two Yankeetown students are undergoing surgery after the bus crash in Levy County

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LEVY COUNTY, Fla. (WCJB) - Sixth grader, Aiden Henry, and his younger sister had just stepped off the bus before the tractor trailer collided from behind.

“It was basically thunder just louder and closer. All of a sudden I heard a bang and I looked behind me and the bus was crushed in the back and a truck was all the way to the left of me” said Henry.

Aiden walked away without injuries but his classmates, who are currently identified as thirteen year old Gracie and ten year old Emma, were brought to UF Health Shands in critical condition.

“To the mothers I watched you are so strong” said Aiden’s mother, Amanda Rakestraw.

According to friends and family, the two girls are still at hospital undergoing multiple surgeries to their legs.

Mary Nickelson was the driver of the bus and has worked for Yankeetown School for twenty four years, according to her best friend of thirty five years, Bonnie Williams.

Williams was immediately on the scene when she realized it was her friend’s bus.

“That is my best friends route. These kids are like her family. Her bus kids are like her kids. She calls them her kids” said Williams.

Mary and the other three injured students have been released from the hospital.

State troopers say the unnamed driver of the Denmark Cargo Solutions tractor trailer was thirty five years old and from Seffner, he suffered no injuries.

“When stuff like this happens people pull together” said Williams.

The superintendent of Levy County schools did release a statement saying he is devastated by the accident and that the school bus was fully stopped with adequate visibility.

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