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(a0633) u a AM-BusWreck 3rdLd-Writethru a0753 12-17 0716
^AM-Bus Wreck, 3rd Ld - Writethru, a0753,570<
^Eds: SUBS 6th graf to CORRECT spelling of Hartfield.<
^Five Killed When Van Carrying Preschoolers Slides off Bridge<
^Laserphoto Covering, Map NY30<
^By TERRY GOGGIN=
^Associated Press Writer=
	   PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) _ A van overcrowded with pre-school
youngsters slid off a narrow bridge in misty rain Thursday and
plunged 14 feet into a creek bed, where it burst into flames. Four
children and an adult were killed, and 29 others were injured.
	   Rescuers smashed windows as the yellow van lay on its side in
the shallow creek and pulled 28 children to safety. Three of the
children and the driver were hospitalized in stable condition.
	   ``They couldn't get out and they were screaming,'' said Dick
Green, a ranch manager who was first to reach the wreckage near a
narrow gravel road 15 miles east of Port Gibson.
	   ``It was burning and I got to a window and started pulling them
out as fast as I could,'' he said. ``There was an old lady in the
bus and I tried and tried to pull her out of a window but I
couldn't because of the flames and the smoke.''
	   Another Head Start van carrying a group of four- and
five-year-olds home from classes crashed into a tree in the rain
just south of Hattiesburg, about 140 miles east of Port Gibson.
Fifteen children were treated at a local hospital for minor
injuries and released, said Forrest County deputies.
	   An adult in the van, Bernice Reed, 32, was admitted to Forrest
General Hospital for treatment of broken bones, a hospital
spokesman said. Deputies identified the driver, who was not
injured, as Aline Hartfield, 59.
	   Near Port Gibson, Claiborne County Fire Chief Sam Jennings said
the van, gutted by fire, had seats for 16 but was carrying 34
people.
	   ``The whole road was muddy, there was mud on the bridge,'' said
the driver, Bobbie Skinner, who was hospitalized with injuries.
	   She said once the van started sliding, she could not control it.
	   ``It went down into the creek,'' she said. ``I climbed out of
the window and started pulling children out.''
	   Jennings said the bridge, at the foot of a hill, had elevated
wooden tracks over railroad ties forming the bridge floor and only
one vehicle could pass at a time.
	   ``It appears the van came off the hill and just missed the
ridges and slid off hood-first,'' he said. ``Apparently, the fire
started in the motor area, possibly a broken fuel line near the
fuel pump, and then spread through the interior.''
	   Jennings said the five bodies were in the front of the van.
	   ``When I got there the kids were running around hollering,
screaming and crying and we started putting them in the car to get
them warm,'' the fire chief said.
	   The dead were not immediately identified.
	   Twenty-five of the children, all ages 4 to 6, were examined at a
Port Gibson hospital and released, officers said.
	   It was misting rain as the van made its morning round to pick up
children for a Head Start program in the Pattison community. The
program is designed to prepare low-income children for elementary
school.
	   George Berryhill, who works for Green at the ranch a few hundred
yards from the bridge, said he pulled one girl from the van whose
coat was on fire.
	   ``I just threw her in the creek to put out the fire and then
picked her up,'' he said.
	   Green said the woman he tried to rescue had suffered a head
injury and appeared dazed.
	   Berryhill said he tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher
and then broke out a window.
	   He said he and Green had rushed to the scene after ``hearing a
loud thump and a horn blow. When I got there the bus was resting on
its side below the wooden bridge and it was burning.''
	   Berryhill said he called firemen and that ambulances arrived to
pick up the children.
	   Regina Butler, a teacher at the head start center, said the
children were among 164 pupils in the child care facility.
	   ``We tried to go on but parents kept coming in getting their
children,'' Mrs. Butler said. ``We've been flooded with calls
because we have several buses that make rounds.''
	   AP-NR-12-17 2010EST<