Channelview ISD students recount deadly bus crash in Alabama

Rescue crews work at the scene of a deadly charter bus crash on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Loxley, Ala. The bus carrying Texas high school band members home from Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn Tuesday. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson) less Rescue crews work at the scene of a deadly charter bus crash on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Loxley, Ala. The bus carrying Texas high school band members home from Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn ... more Photo: Dan Anderson, Associated Press Photo: Dan Anderson, Associated Press Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Channelview ISD students recount deadly bus crash in Alabama 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Aliza Delgado was fast asleep in the early morning hours of Tuesday on a charter bus carrying her and bandmates from Channelview High School back home from a Spring Break trip to Disney World.

The voice of her band director, who was yelling something, awoke her. That's when she realized she'd been in a crash that sent the bus plunging 50 feet down into an Alabama ravine.

"She was crying a storm," said her father, Joe Delgado, who spoke to his daughter shortly after the crash that killed the bus driver and injured dozens of her classmates.

Delgado first got a call from someone telling him his daughter was a passenger on the charter bus. He couldn't reach her, because “her phone had flown out of the bus,” he said.

Aliza Delgado used a borrowed phone to call him a few minutes later. She told him that her legs were swelling and her shoulder and lower back were in pain.

The bus was left mangled on the bottom of the ravine under Interstate 10, close to the Alabama-Florida line. Still, Channelview ISD Superintendent Greg Ollis said it was incredible that none of the 46 students or adults on the bus were killed or more seriously maimed.

No one from the high school was in critical condition. Forty students and six adults were on the bus that crashed, he said.

"We're blessed because I think our students are going to be alright and our staff members are going to be alright," Ollis said. "It's unbelievable how it turned out after what we saw this morning."

Up to 20 people were injured in the crash, Baldwin County Sheriff Sheriff Hoss Mack said. Dozens of children were flown or taken by ambulance to 10 different hospitals.

"My heart goes out to those people," Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spokeswoman Robyn Bryan said. "Just knowing your child may be on a trip and encounter something like this, I know the parents at home are just worried sick."

The charter bus company, Houston-based First Class Tours, identified the driver as Harry Caligone, 65. The company identified him as a long-time driver.

READ ALSO: Video shows the tragic aftermath of deadly bus crash involving Channelview students in Alabama

Alabama state troopers received a call about the crash around 5:30 a.m., after the bus fell off the road near Interstate 10's mile marker 57, near the state's eastern border, Bryan said.

The bus appeared to have left the roadway before crossing a bridge and falling into the ravine, said Assistant Deputy Chief Anthony Lowery of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office.

A Baldwin County commissioner who assisted this morning said responders had to rappel down to the bus to rescue the bus riders, according to the Associated Press.

Passengers were all rescued from the bus by noon, Bryan said. The crash shut down I-10 in both directions.

Students who were uninjured or discharged from hospital after being treated for minor injuries are at two sites - one in Alabama and one in Pensacola, Fla., Ollis said.

Several students were afraid to ride back to Channelview on the road, Ollis said, so the district is working with airlines to try to find them flights home.

The bus that veered off the ravine was following behind another bus that also carried Channelview band students, Ollis said. Fewer people were on the bus that crashed because it was hauling band instruments.

Some parents and staff members with the first bus turned around to help out, Ollis said.

Parents who were not on the trip, through stories from their children, have since described the choppy, lightning-fast moments from crash.

Aliza Delgado, a senior French horn player, told her dad she didn’t know where any of her friends had been taken or whether they were injured.

Delgado hopped in his car immediately and headed for Pensacola, Fla., where his daughter is being treated at a hospital. He had neared the Mississippi state line by 12:30 p.m.

“I just want to see her smile and make sure she’s fine,” he said.

DeWayne Benson, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays bass clarinet, told his mother Frances Dodson-Benson that he woke up to the sound of the bus hitting "some sort of hard bumps," the Associated Press reported.

"Then there was a loud, really huge crash that was presumably when the bus finally came to a stop," she said. "There were students on top of students, the bags, it was just a disarray, a lot of commotion, a lot of panic."

Twenty students were taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, five of whom were originally in serious condition. Three of the five have been upgraded to good condition, said Sacred Heart specialist Kathy Bowers. The 15 others have been released.

Sixteen of the students riding the bus, all in stable condition, were taken to hospitals and a freestanding emergency department in the Infirmary Health System in Alabama. Two were transferred, by ground, to the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile, which treats more serious injuries. Three were transferred to Infirmary hospitals that provide a higher level of care.

Infirmary spokeswoman Martha Davidson said five of the students have been discharged, and two more will follow soon. Seven students remain at Infirmary hospitals, she said.

Non-injured individuals are being transported to Coastal Church in Daphne, said Steve Arthur, captain of the investigations command at the Baldwin County sheriff's office. EMS set up a shelter there with food, drink and warm clothing.

Family members of people riding the bus are being asked to call 251-972-6807 to check on the condition of their children.

Channelview Independent School District officials said it is now focused on getting everyone back home safely. Grief counselors, local pastors and others had gathered at Channelview High Tuesday afternoon to receive students arriving on the other bus.

More than 9,500 students attend Channelview ISD.

The school district is wedged between Sheldon and Deer Park, just west of the San Jacinto River.

The district is about 78 percent Hispanic, 11 percent black, 8 percent white and 79 percent economically disadvantaged, according to the Texas Education Agency.

By 1:30 p.m., the band's second bus arrived back safely at Channelview High, flanked by police cars with lights flashing.

Family members and others had gathered in a back parking lot to meet the bus.

"We are extremely grateful for the first responders, hospital employees, and volunteers from churches and schools in Alabama and Florida that have stepped up to help our students and comfort them through this difficult situation," the district said in a statement. "Those communities have opened their hearts and arms to our students and employees."

Just yesterday, the Channelview High School Falcon Band updated its Facebook page with a group shot of the kids smiling outside of Disney World in Florida.

More than 300 students are part of Channelview High School's band program, according to Channelview ISD's website. The band program consists of the Falcon Marching Band, six concert bands, a winter color guard and a winter percussion ensemble.

Delgado said the band takes a big trip every four years, and that band members had performed at Disney World over the weekend and visited the major Disney parks.

According to social media, several bands from the Houston area made spring break trips to Disney World, including high schools in Conroe, Vidor, Langham Creek and La Porte.

Lisa Emord’s grandson Canyon is a freshman in the La Porte band, which is returning home from Florida Tuesday as well. She said her heart leaped into her throat when she heard the news about Channelview this morning.

“It scared me so bad,” she said. “ I was in tears until I heard from my grandson that he was OK.”

Berenice Montelongo, a sophomore who plays trombone in Channelview High's band, said she wanted to go on the trip to Disney but said she couldn't afford the expenses. She woke up to find photos of the accident on her Instagram feed this morning.

"I started panicking. I started texting some of my friends," Montelongo said. "Some of them didn't answer so that worried me a little."

Eventually one of her friends on the band trip texted her back, telling her that he and a handful of her friends were OK but that classmates had been transported to hospitals across Alabama and Florida.

As she stood in front of a cafe directly across the street from Channelview High, Montelongo said she just wanted to see her friends.

"I'm waiting for them to all be OK and arrive," Montelongo said. "I'm really worried about people in the hospital in other states. They're so far away from home."

Cristian Gonzalez, a 2011 Channelview graduate who was the band's drum major, said he'd been in touch several times today with Channelview friends who are in Pensacola, Fla., where some of the students are being treated at a local hospital.

He talked to Mendy Graham, a Channelview High School teacher who was vacationing in Pensacola and headed for the hospital when she heard the news.

"She said it's a blessing – they're treating them like they're their own kids," Gonzalez said.

Channelview students have been able to meet with counselors and spend time with support dogs, Graham reported, and a retail chain has supplied new clothes so they could change after the crash.

Gov. Greg Abbott joined in the outpouring of support for the school and said the state would be able provide the district any necessary aid after the crash.

"Cecilia and I are heartbroken by the news of this tragic accident, and we offer our prayers to all these young Texans and their families," Abbott said in a news release. "I pray for a speedy recovery for all those injured, and I am especially grateful for the heroic actions of the Alabama first responders that undoubtedly helped save lives today. Texas is prepared to offer any assistance necessary as we rally around the entire Channelview High School community during this difficult time."

The National Transporation Safety Board has dispatched a six-member crash investigation team that is expected to arrive at the crash site late Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman in Washington said.

The school district chartered the bus from Houston-based First Class Tours, company spokeswoman Anne Steinberg said.

"It is our understanding that there are injuries as a result of the accident. Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time," the company said in the statement. "We pledge our assistance in cooperating with local authorities in the investigation."

Late Tuesday the company issued a statement offering its condolences for the driver as well as prayers for the injured.

"Regrettably, the accident has taken the life of the driver of the bus, Harry Caligone. Harry was a long-time driver for our company and we are deeply saddened for this loss. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.

First Class Tours runs 58 buses and motor coaches and employs 94 drivers, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Federal inspectors have inspected the company 276 times in past years, issuing a total of 20 violations.

FMCSA records show federal inspectors cited the company twice for unsafe driving violations. In Louisiana, a driver failed to wear their seat belt, and in Texas, for driving 11-to-14 miles above the speed limit.

Data from the agency shows company drivers have crashed four other times - with one fatality – in the last 24 months.

In that instance, a bus struck and killed a 73-year-old woman in downtown Houston as she made her way across the crosswalk. The driver, who was not the driver in Tuesday's crash, failed to yield right of way, according to the crash report. No other causes were cited in the report.

RELATED: Bus hits, kills, 73-year-old woman

The most recent data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration show that there were 1,172 "school-transportation-related" crashes from 2006 to 2015.

In that same time period, 1,313 people died in school-transportation-related

crashes, or approximately 131 fatalities per year, and 102 school-age pedestrians died in school-transportation related crashes, according to NHTSA records.

Sixty-one percent were struck by school buses, 3 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 36 percent by other vehicles (passenger cars, light trucks and vans, large trucks, and motorcycles, etc.) involved in the crashes, NHTSA records show.

In 2015, 49 people in school buses died in crashes.

According to the Criminal Justice Information Center in Alabama, there have been more than 75 charter or tour bus crashes since March 2008, resulting in at least seven fatalities.

The crash comes more than two years after a school bus crash in Houston killed two children.

A GoFundMe page was created in response of the crash. With a $30,000 goal, the organizer wrote that the money will be used to provide assistance to the affected families.

Reporters Dug Begley and Mark Collette contributed to this article.

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.

Samantha Ketterer covers breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to samantha.ketterer@chron.com.