One dead after school bus overturns in Chester County

A school bus from Lexington District 2 overturned on I-77 in Chester Co. during a field trip. Photo from Melvin Young.

CHESTER CO., S.C. – One student died after a school bus overturned on I-77 in Chester County Thursday afternoon, shutting down all lanes of the interstate near Exit 55 for South Carolina 97.

The victim has been identified as 13-year-old Jose Maria Gonzalez Linares, an eighth grader at Pine Ridge Middle School.

Lexington School District Two says three of its buses were taking students home from a field trip outside of Charlotte, when a tire blew on one of the buses.

The bus carrying two adults and about 35 students flipped on its side. Thirty-eight patients were transported, three by helicopter and the rest by ground. All 38 patients were taken to five different hospitals.

The school district says the other two buses were not involved in the accident.

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