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Wreck involving bus sends four RHHS students to hospital
Update: One victim flown by helicopter to Savannah
wreck for web 1
A car carrying four Richmond Hill High School students was hit by a school bus Tuesday afternoon on Harris Trail at the Timber Trail Intersection, sending all four students to Memorial Medical Center in Savannah. One student was flown by helicopter while the other three were taken by Bryan County Emergency Services. The students had to be extricated from the car by the Richmond Hill Fire Department. Richmond Hill Police also responded to the accident, which occurred around 3 p.m. after the driver of the car apparently turned left in front of the oncoming bus. The victims names and their conditions have not been released. - photo by Jeff Whitte

The Richmond Hill Police and the Georgia State Patrol are investigating a Tuesday afternoon wreck that involved a school bus.

According to RH Police Chief Billy Reynolds, four teenagers riding in a Toyota sedan were taken to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah -- including one who was flown by helicopter -- after their car was struck by a school bus near RHHS around 3 p.m. Three of the victims were sisters, and the fourth passenger was the girls’ female cousin. All are RHHS students.

Richmond Hill Fire Chief Ralph Catlett said his department got a call about the wreck around 3 p.m. Emergency workers had to remove the car’s roof so the passengers could be extricated. Three of the passengers were taken to Memorial by Bryan County EMS, according to EMS Chief Freddy Howell.

Forty-five students were on the bus and two complained of neck injuries. They were treated at the scene and released to their parents. A statement from Bryan County Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Brooksher said the accident is under investigation.

“Our thoughts are with all those involved and we will provide updates as information becomes available,” Brooksher said. 

According to authorities, the bus carrying Richmond Hill Middle school students was on Harris Trail and approaching the intersection when the driver of the car attempted to turn left onto Timber Trail in front of it.

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The Bryan County News will provide updates on this story as more details become available. 

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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