A Beaufort County woman got quite the wake-up call Monday.

Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 6:21 a.m. Monday about a school bus crash at 8649 U.S. Highway 264 East, just outside of Washington.

According to reports, school bus No. 282’s driver lost control of the bus and plowed through the home of Ethan and Casey Coltrain. The bus transports students to the Northeast Regional School of Biotechnology and Agriscience in Jamesville. No one was hurt during the crash.

Casey Coltrain said she was about to get up for work when she was startled to hear first a loud bang and then a crash. She then went into the hallway and found the damage.

“I had just looked at the clock and thought, ‘Ooh, I can sleep a couple more minutes,'” she said. “From the hallway I could see the whole part of the house was torn open.”

The school bus tore through the Coltrains’ yard, knocked against the front porch, clipped part of the living room and rammed into the side porch before it slammed into a vehicle parked in the driveway, according to Coltrain.

State Trooper Stephen Gerard of the N.C. Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash, said some of the wheel fasteners came loose on a tractor-trailer, causing two of the wheels on one axle to detach. The detached wheels hit the bus, causing the school bus driver to swerve onto the Coltrain property.

Gerard said the driver of the tractor-trailer wouldn’t have known the wheels were detached if not for the noise of the crash, as the axle did not drag along the highway and it was still dark outside.

Trooper Chris White, who led the investigation, said Karen Clark, 50, of Greenville, was driving the bus and it was not known how long she has been a driver. Randy Carawan, 34, of Bath, was driving the tractor-trailer when it malfunctioned.

White said there would be no charges filed, as it was a mechanical failure.

“I was going hunting actually, and she was home in the bed and asleep,” Ethan Coltrain said of his wife. “She just immediately jumped out of bed, and there was lights and chaos, as you can imagine.”

“My first thought is, ‘I needed to call my husband and I wish my husband was here,'” Casey Coltrain said, adding that she called him first before dialing 911 then alerting her workplace of what had happened.

Family and friends stopped by throughout the day to help clean up the mess, and Monday night planned to assess the damage of some of the Christmas presents in the living room under the destroyed Christmas tree, she said.

Sarah Hodges, public information officer at Beaufort County Schools, said there were no students on board during the crash.

Hodges said there are a few buses on reserve in case another needs maintenance repair, so the school system will do whatever is necessary to make sure bus 282’s route is covered.
“We’re just very thankful that no students were on board,” Hodges said. “It was just the driver, and fortunately, no one was transported (to the hospital).”

“We’re very blessed that no one was hurt. We can replace things. We can’t replace people,” Ethan Coltrain said.