WINONA – Sources close to the family of 18-year-old Montgomery County High School senior Stevelyn “Pooda” Robinson, said Robinson was critically injured trying to protect his little sister moments before their school bus was hit by an empty log truck.
Robinson and his sister, Jazzlyn, a 7th grader also at Montgomery County High in Kilmichael, were injured with 18 other students when the accident occurred just after 7 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2.
The driver of the school bus, David McGee, was attempting to cross U.S. Highway 82 when he drove into the path of the log truck driven by William Earl Campbell of Choctaw County.
McGee sustained minor injuries and Campbell was not injured.
Officials would not confirm if McGee was issued a citation.
A former Montgomery County High School student, who asked not to be identified, said he works with a cousin of the Robinson family, and was with her when she was notified of the accident.
“She had her [cell] phone on silent and they had to call the store,” the former student said. “And she got real nervous and that made me stop to see what was going on, and when she got off the phone she was like, ‘I need to go, I need to go.’ She was too nervous to drive and our manager let us go and we left going to where the accident was.”
The former student, who still has friends and family members who attend both Montgomery County schools, said cars were lined up along the highway for miles as parents and other motorists stopped at the accident scene.
“There were a lot of parents out there,” he said. “But it seemed like there were more folks out there that didn’t have any kids on the bus because at that time of morning, a lot of the parents were already at work.”
There is a stop sign on Lodi Road allowing vehicles to enter the highway safely. But McGee told officials the sun was shining in his eyes and he didn’t see the log truck coming, Winona Police Chief Johnny Hargrove said.
The former student said Robinson saw the log truck was about to hit the school bus and he got up to protect his sister.
“He saw it was about to happen and he jumped over the seat to try to cover her,” the student said.
Shaquille Sanders, a senior at Montgomery County High and a lifelong friend of Robinson, said the senior was known for always trying to help others.
“Pooda will go anywhere and do anything he can for somebody,” Shaquille said. “He wasn’t a selfish person. “So to hear that he went to save somebody else really don’t surprise me.”
Shaquille’s mother, Nakita L. Sanders, who is a member of the Booster Club and regularly attends Montgomery County school and sporting events, said Robinson and his sister share a very close bond.
“Stevelyn is a real sweet child,” she said. “And he and sister are always together. Anytime anything goes on, they’re together and when he’s out there on the football field, she’s always yelling, ‘You all better leave my brother alone. She’s all about her brother.”
Both Robinson and Jazzlyn were airlifted to UMC Hospital in Jackson from the accident site on Friday. Robinson was paralyzed in the accident sustaining neck and spinal injuries while Jazzlyn sustained head, facial and leg injuries.
Jazzlyn has since been released.
About 20 elementary and high school students were on the bus at the time of the accident and all of them sustained some type of injury. Officials said the school bus had picked up half the students on the route and was headed to Kilmichael to pick up additional students and drop them off at school.
Hospital officials said seven students were transported to UMC Friday. Four are still being treated and two others are listed in fair condition.
Two other students were discharged Friday and one was released Saturday.
Other students were treated at Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital in Winona and reportedly at Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
None of those students reportedly had life threatening injuries.
Police chief Hargrove said the accident scene was very chaotic, but it wasn’t as serious as it could have been if the log truck was carrying a full load.
“I’ve seen school bus accidents here before,” Hargrove said. “But not with this many kids, and it could have been worse.”
Hargrove said the impact of the crash knocked the school bus on its side sending the 20 students hurling through the air.
“There were no seat belts on the bus, so when it flipped, all the students fell to the bottom,” he said. “Kids were going everywhere.”
Hargrove said when he arrived at the scene, many of the children were hysterical but all were alert and conscious.
“They were being treated…and they had to be calmed down, but they were alert,” he said. “One student [Robinson] said he couldn’t feel his legs and his sister had head trauma.”
Sanders said she heard about the accident Friday morning as she was getting ready for work. Her sons, Shaquille and 8-year-old Kobe, who attends Montgomery County Elementary, were next on the route to be picked up once McGee left Winona.
“My Aunt Dot called me about the wreck and I looked up at the time and I told my kids, ‘I bet that was your bus,'” she said. “I took them to school first and then I went to the scene and people were everywhere. They were just working like bees.”
Sanders said she then drove to Tyler Holmes Hospital to be with the families, many of whom she’s known for years.
“This was a parent’s worst nightmare,” she said. “And I went to the hospital because I was concerned and I wanted to be there for the families, to comfort them. I think of all of these children as our children…my children.”
Shaquille, who said he’s been classmates with Robinson since Head Start, said he left school early Friday morning going to Jackson to check on his friend.
“He was awake when we got there,” Shaquille said. “He opened his eyes. We asked him questions and he shook his head yes or no. He shook my hand. He might have been hurt, but he was still Pooda.”
McGgee, who has been employed with Montgomery County schools as a teacher and bus driver for well over 20 years, was back on duty Monday morning, picking up Shaquille, Kobe and others for school. But Shaquille said the atmosphere around Montgomery County High wasn’t the same without his friend.
“It felt kind of empty because he wasn’t there,” Shaquille said. “He’s usually cracking jokes in first period and sometimes the teacher has to tell us to hush because we’re talking in class. But we just kid around talking about something that happened on the weekend or something we saw on TV. It’s just sad.”
“We’re all pulling together trying to get through this tragedy,” Shaquille’s mother, Nakita Sanders said. “Everyone is calling and texting: ‘What can we do for the family?’ because we are all family.”
Shaquille, who said his last report on Robinson indicated he was doing well and regaining some feeling in his body, painted his friend’s basketball and football jersey numbers on his car in honor of his friend. He said those messages will remain until Robinson gets better.
“I look up to him as a big brother,” Shaquille said. “We’ve been friends for too long, so we just call each other, ‘brother.’ And I feel like that was my little brother, Kobe, in the accident. So I put that message out there for Pooda. To represent – for Pooda.”
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