By Matthew Monks
“The bus flipped over,” said Sean Filpo, 11, one of 44 sixth-graders from St. Christopher's School in Baldwin, L.I., who went tumbling in the crash. “I blacked out. I was terrified. It was like a dream.”None of the 44 students on board were seriously hurt, although the driver, whose name was not released, was taken to the hospital with a minor arm injury, police said. Minutes after the crash, children were laid out stretchers in the grass off the Francis Lewis Boulevard exit as medics tended their minor bumps, bruises and scrapes. Seventeen kids were taken by ambulance to area hospitals, police said. The other 27 were bused to Elmhurst Hospital for evaluation, a Fire Department spokesman said. The bus driver was in a hurry to get back to Long Island after an outing to Medieval Times, a theme restaurant in Lyndhurst where the children watched knights on horses joust, said Curtis Fisher, 60, of Baldwin, whose 11-year old son, Christian, was in the accident. Fisher said the group was scheduled to be back at St. Christopher's by 3 p.m. but the bus was delayed by traffic.Christian said the driver told the two teachers on board that he could make it back to Long Island by 3:30 p.m. at the soonest. “What the kids are saying is he sort of missed his exit,” Curtis Fisher said. “The bus driver should have taken better precautions.”The bus was heading west on the parkway even though Baldwin is east. Jake Miller, 12, said that at roughly 3:30 p.m., the driver made a sharp turn to get on the exit ramp at Francis Lewis Boulevard and the Laurelton Parkway. “We swerved and the bus went on its side,” Miller said. “I know a lot of people got hurt – cuts, lumps, bruises.”The boy described the crash like a scene in a movie “but without the special effects,” he said. “'Cause in a movie the bus would like flip over eight times.””Most of the windows shattered,” added Matthew Oswald, 11. “Everyone was scared.”No other vehicles were involved and the crash was under investigation. A police spokesman said no charges were filed as of Tuesday. Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
