CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE — A Tennessee community is reeling from an accident that claimed the lives of multiple children just days before Thanksgiving. <br /> <br />The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that on Monday afternoon, 37 children were on board a school bus as it traveled along Talley Road in Chattanooga. The students, from Woodmore Elementary School, ranged in age from kindergarten to fifth grade. <br /> <br />According to Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, early reports indicate that the bus may have hit a utility pole before flipping on its side and crashing into a tree. <br /> <br />Children were seen escaping the wreck to safety by climbing out of the vehicle’s roof hatch, though many more were trapped inside. <br /> <br />Rescuers spent at least two hours extracting everyone from the bus. Five students died at the scene, and more than two dozen others injured. <br /> <br />Police arrested the 24-year-old bus driver and are charging him with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving, according to the Tennessean. <br /> <br />The crash comes just days after another school bus flipped over on Interstate 65 in Nashville and injured nearly two dozen students.
