Nebraska Firefighter Responds to Bus Crash; Treats Daughter

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) – An emergency worker who responded to Wednesday’s middle school bus crash in Fremont wound up treating his own daughter.

Nine of the 55 students on the bus suffered minor injuries when a van hit the back of the bus stopped at a railroad crossing. The driver, 21-year-old Joshua Abraham of Elkhorn, was flown to an Omaha hospital, but no update on his condition was available on Friday.

All the students were examined, treated and released on Wednesday.

Jim Snyder with the Fremont Rural Fire Department told the Fremont Tribune (http://bit.ly/p2e2Mj ) he initially thought the bus might be empty when he approached the crash.

“Then you pull up and you think, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to be good,'” said Snyder, who is the emergency medical services coordinator for the department.

“This is something you can train and train for and never be prepared for,” he said.

Snyder said most of the students were shaken up by the accident, and at least one girl was crying.

Snyder initially checked a couple students who complained of neck and head injuries before he found out the bus was carrying students his daughter’s age. After asking, he learned his daughter, Katheryne, was sitting up front.

Snyder’s daughter had a slight cut on her forehead from her glasses, but was otherwise OK and didn’t want to go to the hospital.

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Information from: Fremont Tribune, http://www.fremontneb.com