By Jason Scheer
At about 3:30 p.m. last Tuesday, a school bus carrying the local students and two adult chaperones approached the Francis Lewis Boulevard exit while heading eastbound on the Belt Parkway. According to police, the driver, Angelo Kalatoudis, 50, of Oceanside, lost control while negotiating the turn, and the vehicle tipped over onto the driver's side. The bus's exterior was crushed, and students who weren't wearing seat belts were thrown about the vehicle's interior.
Monsignor John Bennett, pastor of St. Christopher's, said that none of the students was seriously injured, though two spent the night in a local hospital. Kalatoudis suffered a fractured shoulder.
Bennett, a former fire chaplain, said he received a call shortly after the accident occurred and immediately was on his way to the scene. "I've seen an awful lot of accidents - too many of them," he said. "... When you see your own people involved it's a very, very scary situation. I did a lot of praying between Baldwin and Rosedale."
When he arrived at the scene, Bennett said, the students were being tended to by a number of emergency personnel. They were being examined on gurneys as a precaution. Bennett credits the first responders with making a scary situation a little more tolerable for the young passengers.
"I can't say enough about the police officers, the firefighters and the EMS workers," he said. "They were absolutely wonderful in their compassion for the youngsters."
The sixth-graders were on the way home from an annual visit to Medieval Times in Lyndhurst, N.J. Bennett explained that the trip has been a part of the curriculum for a number of years, and students looked forward to it. He said that a handful of the students involved in the accident returned to school on Wednesday. He added that members of the parish, parents and fellow students shared an evident compassion for the accident victims. "It's been a wonderful, wonderful thing to watch [the students] care for each other today," he said.
Bennett was thankful that no one was seriously injured in what might have been a devastating accident. He stopped short of calling it a miracle, but did say there might have been some divine intervention. "St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers," Bennett explained. "... I think St. Christopher was keeping a watching eye on our youngsters."
From the inside
Erin Mandato, 12, Shannon Gioello, 11, and Caroline Kornobis, 11, were among 44 students on the bus. They spoke with the Herald about their terrifying experience.
"We were about to miss the exit, but the bus driver didn't make it," Mandato recalled. "So he made a sharp turn ... and then the bus slipped onto the side."
Gioello, who was sitting on the driver's side, remembers the vehicle tipping over. She said she felt other children fall on top of her, but refused to open her eyes out of fear and disbelief. "I didn't really see anything, because I held my eyes closed because I was scared and I thought it was like a dream and I would be waking up any second," she said.
Gioello explained that most of the children in the aisle seats had been instructed to put their seat belts on by the driver. However, a teacher on the trip told everyone to buckle up. Not everyone listened.
Kornobis, who said she sustained a pulled muscle in her neck, said the entire ordeal flew by. Looking back, she said it was still a shock. "I was very happy that I got out," she said. "I just can't believe that it happened."
All three students were taken to local hospitals. They said that the police officers, firefighters and others who responded to the scene helped calm them down. The scariest thing was worrying about their friends. "It's hard to see your friends roll away in stretchers," Mandato said.
Nora Gioello, Shannon's mother, said she began worrying about her daughter because the bus, scheduled to arrive back in Baldwin at 3 p.m., was already late. Then she got a call from a fellow parent, who told her what happened. "It was shocking," Gioello said.
Soon afterward, she was walking through the doors at Franklin Hospital Medical Center to visit her daughter. "I was worried. I didn't know what I would find," she said. She said she felt enormous relief that no one had been seriously injured.
"I feel like we cheated death," she said. "It could have been so awful, but it wasn't. We were so lucky, very lucky. All of us. It could have really been tragic."
Driver charged
Two days after the accident, Kalatoudis was charged with four traffic infractions: exiting from the center lane, unsafe operation of a vehicle, failing to have a motor vehicle stamp, which is a Nassau County requirement, and failing to have a Transportation Department permit.
Ravi Batra, Kalatoudis's attorney, said that his client's thoughts were with the children. "His major concern at the moment, as a family man, is that all the kids entrusted to his care and to the bus company are well and secure in their families' warm embrace," Batra said.
As for Kalatoudis's condition, Batra said, "He is in excruciating pain."
Comments on this story? JScheer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
