Authorities hear two versions of what caused morning accident

Was it a pothole or a crash?
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- No one disagrees that several children were jolted out of their school bus seats at 7:20 a.m. Thursday at Blackburn Street and Robinson Road.
There are two radically different versions of what caused the incident, however.
The bus driver said she must have hit a large pothole, Superintendent Thomas Robey said.
The mother of two boys riding on the bus, ages 13 and 14, said her sons told her the bus was in a crash with a white pickup truck -- and the bus driver left the scene.
No crash between a school bus and pickup was reported, the city police department said.
The mother, of Blackburn Street, said this morning she learned about the incident when school officials called and said one of her sons was complaining of a headache, sore wrist and neck pain. She said she encountered other parents at the school whose children had been on the bus.
Parents called
The parents were called, Robey said, because their children said they didn't feel well. He said two parents took their children out of school.
The Blackburn Street mother said she planned to take her son to the hospital for examination.
Robey said he talked to four pupils who thought a white pickup hit the bus. But, when he went to the site of the pothole/crash this morning, he said he found no debris on the street that would indicate a crash had occurred. Also, he found no new marks on the bus. There is a dent on the bus, but it is about two years old, the superintendent said.
alcorn@vindy.com