It was about 10:00 last night when our buses were going down Glade Road. We had just come back from the Marching Band Competition at Birdville. We'd left early w/out finding what place we got because we wanted to avoid the rain. The bus I was on was the Saxophone bus and the bus in front of us (the first bus) was the clarinet bus. As the clarinet bus came to the Glade-Pool intersection, I heard a REALLY loud bang. At first I thought the clarinet bus' tire blew out because the bus looked kinda tilted. Then our bus driver started yelling "EVERYBODY, GET DOWN! STAY DOWN!" At that point, I thought someone had a gun and was shooting at us. Then I saw a car that was smoking and looked undamaged and I thought "Ok, it was just a car backfiring." And then someone yelled "Oh my god, she's hurt! Call the police." At that point I saw the front of the other bus and saw that is was crushed. We were all freaking out. I couldn't get a clear view, but people kept saying "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." I saw them pull the woman out of the car. Her body was limp. They started moving her arms and legs around. I didn't see her moving. It looked as if she had no control over her limbs, that the only way they were moving was from the people around her. It was scary. Our saxophone section leader (whose girlfriend was also on that bus) then told us to make room on the bus for the clarinets. Everyone doubled up and went to the back of the bus. The clarinets ended up staying in their bus for a while and not coming w/ us. When we started to drive away, I saw the whole front of the bus, which was crushed. I just broke down at that point. There were fire men in the bus, too, taking care of everyone. I had friends on that bus. They said everyone was all right, but it turns out not everyone was all right. The bus driver was hurt and a chaperone was hurt. When I got back to the band hall I had stopped crying, and put some of my stuff away. Once I saw one of my friends though, we both started crying again, mainly over our really good friend who was on that bus and that we felt so bad for the woman in the car. After hugging her, I started walking around the band hall trying to figure out what to do next and what stuff I needed to put away and if I should go to the bathroom to clean up. I got comforted by a lot of people including people I barely knew. I still don't know the condition of the woman in the car and how my friends are doing.

I think now it was kind of silly for me to be crying like that. I guess I was just really scared though for people on both sides of the accident. I was also overwhelmed by "What if..." questions and thoughts of what could have happened and the sight of that woman.

Yesterday was a bad day.