Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp agonized through the drive Tuesday morning towards the Interstate 70 and State Route 310 interchange.
The longtime sheriff had been in Sandusky, attending a convention of Ohio sheriffs, when he began getting alerts a couple of five-vehicle crash involving a charter bus of high school students and a tractor-trailer.
“I packed up all my stuff, checked out and began driving,” Thorp stated. “These miles have been terrible.”
Thorp went to the scene on Tuesday, serving to to offer help for deputies from his company, and first responders from other police and fire agencies throughout Licking and Franklin counties who had responded to the scene.
Six folks died because of the crash, 18-year-old Tuscarawas Valley seniors John Mosley and Jeffrey Worrell, 15-year-old sophomore Katelyn Owens, trainer Dave Kennat, 56, and fogeys Kristy Gaynor, 39, and Shannon Wigfield, 45.
All six died on the scene. Greater than a dozen different college students have been damage within the crash, together with a number of others.
Whereas deputies are educated to answer traumatic conditions and run towards hazard, the aftermath could be devastating for first responders. Thorp stated a Licking County deputy who doubles because the chaplain for the company went to a hospital with a few of these injured Tuesday, then got here again to the reunification middle to help deputies and people college students ready for his or her family members.
Chaplains from Franklin County additionally got here to the scene to assist present help for victims and first responders.
“It impacts all of us, together with me,” Thorp stated. “For hearth, EMS, the (Ohio Freeway Patrol) troopers, it is a powerful job if you’re coping with one thing like this.”
Licking County deputies held a debriefing Wednesday morning to speak concerning the crash response and ensure deputies knew about help companies and assets which might be accessible in the event that they want them. The sheriff’s workplace can also be persevering with to supply what help they’ll to the Tuscarawas Valley neighborhood.
“It began as a extremely pleased day for these of us from the college,” Thorp stated. “Everybody’s simply devastated.”
bbruner@dispatch.com
@bethany_bruner
This text initially appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sheriff: Fatal high school bus crash, response ‘impacts all of us’
