Mom doubted son in SC middle school crash until she saw video of flipped bus
Ashanti Thames said when her son texted her at about 1:45 p.m. on Thursday that a school bus had flipped over on the interstate, she didn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘FaceTime me,’” she said. “He showed me the bus on its side, and I just got in my car and shot across as quick as I could.”
Thames’ 14-year-old son was riding in the bus behind the bus that was in the wreck, and he and his classmates were thrown to the floor when his driver swerved to avoid the wreck as the tire on the bus ahead blew out and it flipped over. Besides some bruises, he was unhurt, but Thames said he knew Jose Maria Gonzalez-Linares, the student who died in the wreck.
“He said, ‘I think someone died,’” Thames remembers. He later got a phone call from one of Gonzalez-Linares’ relatives confirming his friend had died.
“That was one of his very good friends in sixth grade,” Thames said. “He was a smart kid, took AP classes. He really got to know him, it’s heartbreaking.”
The students, including the 35 on the flipped bus, were on the way back from a field trip that included a visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte just before Lexington 2 schools got out for spring break.
Christy Baker also got a video call from her 13-year-old daughter, riding on one of the other two buses, moments after the crash happened.
“I was shocked, disbelieving, scared and worried,” Baker told The State of her reaction over email. “We also immediately added her dad to the call to let him know what was happening since he is working out of town.”
Baker was not able to immediately head to the scene, she said, because she was waiting in line to pick up her other children from elementary school. She said she wasn’t made aware of the reunification site off of I-77 until hours after the wreck, and by then traffic made it nearly impossible for her to make there.
“Her friend’s dad offered to bring her home since he was already on site getting his daughter,” Baker said.
Thames, on the other hand, said she arrived on the scene in under an hour, before an email had been sent notifying parents of the wreck, and before anyone from the Lexington 2 school district had arrived to meet with parents racing to the scene.
“He stayed on the bus for an hour and a half because they couldn’t get the buses to move,” she said. “There were kids screaming, passing out, fainting. He watched them pulling his classmates out of the bus, and there’s blood all over his friends, just blood everywhere.”
Her son is recovering from the ordeal, but “is still in shock,” she said. A friend who was on the bus that flipped sent him photos of his injuries, and he said, “That could have been me,” Thames said. “It’s becoming more real to him.”
Baker said her child is likewise dealing with what she saw on the highway Thursday, although she was thankfully uninjured, at least physically.
“Our child is traumatized seeing the accident, her friends and teachers hurt,” Baker said.
Baker said she was frustrated with the communications parents received after the wreck, leaving her often unsure what she should do.
“I feel that it was hard getting answers to what was going on and where the other kids were going and being told one minute they are bringing them back then I’m being told where I can pick her up after she was already on the way home with her friend,” Baker said, though she added, “I understand things change in difficult situations.”
The Lexington 2 school district said that the wreck occurring 50-60 miles away from the school and the number of people involved slowed its ability to provide families with information.
“Multiple EMS, first responder, and law enforcement agencies arrived quickly to medically assess the 100-plus Pine Ridge Middle School passengers on buses,” district officials said in a statement.
“It was a rapidly developing situation, and location information provided to the district by those overseeing the highway scene sometimes changed, for any number of reasons – a patient might have been slated to go to one hospital, for example, but, after an assessment on site is sent elsewhere based on the needs of the patient and hospital. Care of the patients was the first priority at the scene. The district’s goal throughout the afternoon and evening was to get accurate information to our Pine Ridge Middle School families as quickly as possible. We wish that all of that information had been available immediately, without the possibility of change, but in this kind of situation, that’s not always the case. We will continue to fine-tune our process.”
Thames was able to take her son home from the reunification area beside I-77, but she said a nephew was taken to the MUSC hospital on Farrow Road for treatment before being released Thursday night.
Even as schools in South Carolina move to restrict students’ access to their cellphones during school hours, Thames said she was glad her son had his on the field trip.
“If they’re traveling, please let them take it on that field trip, because you never know when they will have to call a parent,” she said. “If I didn’t know where my son was, I would have gone into panic mode. ... If my son hadn’t had a cellphone, I wouldn’t have found out until I saw it on social media.”
Hannah Wade contributed to this story.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM.
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