Family displaced after school bus crashes through apartment

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A school bus crashed into an apartment building on Wednesday morning.

It was a frightening experience for one mother and son at the Macon Crossing apartment complex off Homer Street and Macon Road.

Sandy and her 15-year-old son, Jose, are without their home and in need of assistance after a school bus crashed into their apartment. The bus left a huge hole in the Sandy’s bedroom and shattered their sense of safety.

Sandy Gramajo was in her kitchen cooking as her son was inside the bedroom when the bus suddenly crashed into the apartment building.

“It’s really awful,” said Gramajo’s neighbor Ivonne Escobar. “I mean she’s a mom, so obviously she wouldn’t want that for her kid; he was pretty scared.”

The mom and son, as well as neighbors, are thankful to be alive, but still shaken up and heartbroken by the damage.

“It was horrible,” Escobar said. “The sound, the feeling, it even shook the apartment. When she (Gramajo) went in the room, she was shocked.”

Gramajo and her son have only been in the U.S. for 5 years. They moved to Memphis from Guatemala for a better life.

Escobar, who lives two apartments away from Gramajo’s unit, says she also felt the building shake.

“When the bus came into the apartment, the baby jumped from one side to the other from the bed, so that’s how hard it was - the impact on the apartment,” Escobar said.

In a statement from Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the crash happened around 6:15 Wednesday morning.

MSCS district officials say the driver experienced a medical emergency and lost control of the bus, later crashing into the apartment.

Two were students on board.

MSCS tells Action News 5 there were no injuries; however, Memphis Police say two adults and two juveniles were taken to the hospital in non-critical condition.

“She (Gramajo) thought had something really had happened to him (Jose), that she would prefer to die as well if something ever happened to her son because she doesn’t have anyone here.”

The two only have each other. Gramajo cooks and sells tamales for a living. In fact, Wednesday morning, hours after the crash, much of the food she’d already prepared to sell for the day was going bad.

Gramajo will now needs a new home, and a way to provide for her son.

Still, she says she’s grateful they’re safe.

”Thank God her son is OK,” Escobar said. “She just prayed to God and said thank you Lord because we’re alive and it’s the first reaction she had.”

The apartment complex is owned by Reedy and Company. The property manager says the complex is full, but they’re working with the Red Cross to help the displaced family find assistance.

Police say two girls and two adults on the bus were taken to the hospital with non-critical injuries.

A woman who was not on the bus was also taken to the hospital with a medical issue.

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