A 13-year-old Pine Ridge Middle School student was killed April 17, after the school buss he was riding in blew a tire and overturned on I-77.
Jose Maria Gonzalez-Linares was the lone fatality in the crash. The bus was carrying 35 students and three adults. At least 11 people were taken to the hospital.
The bus was one of three from Pine Ridge Middle were on the way home from a Charlotte-area field trip. The other two were not involved in the crash.
“Our focus since this devastating event has been, and will continue to be, our students, families, employees, and the entire Pine Ridge Middle School community,” Superintendent Brenda Hafner said Saturday. “Our heart aches for the family of the student who is no longer with us.”
As of April 19 everyone who was hospitalized had been released. Gonzalez-Linares’ funeral was held April 23.
Donations to help the victims of the crash can be made at a website set up by the school district at https://tinyurl.com/mwunmt9r.
