Investigators say a school bus driver thought someone was chasing the bus with a gun and wound up causing an accident, flipping the bus on its side.
There were four people on the bus including the driver, a bus monitor and two children from Hope Academy.
Investigators say the bus driver drove through a stop sign and into oncoming traffic at the corner of Court and Linn streets when she was struck by a pickup truck.
"There was a small yellow bus flipped over in the street and then there was a pick-up truck in the middle of Linn," said Lekisa Ward, who works near the scene of the crash in the West End. "There was a child laying on the ground and they put him in the ambulance."
It was chaotic as witnesses tried calling 911 for help.
"It's a school bus! It's a school bus!," said one frantic caller.
"Is anybody inside the school bus?," asked the 911 dispatcher.
"It's a kid, It's a kid! Don't move him! Don't move him!," said the caller to the 911 dispatcher.
Police say the bus driver, Natasha Graichon, had apparently hit a parked car on Elizabeth Street around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The driver of the SUV hopped in his vehicle to try to let the bus driver know about the accident and that's when police say Graichon panicked.
"The kids for whatever reason, the kids were yelling, 'Gun!, Gun He's got a gun!' But there's no evidence at this point of the other person having a gun," explained Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Mark Briede.
"Unfortunately, it had to happen this way in order for me to catch up to get the information that I need to take care of my car," said Stanley Powell, the owner of the parked SUV.
The safety director of the Petermann-owned bus says everyone on the bus is okay.
"Everybody was treated and released. It was nothing, but just a little shook-up. A few bruises, but fortunately that was it," said Petermann's safety director, Keith Harms.
The bus driver was ticketed by police.
Petermann says she doesn't have a driving record.
She will have to be retrained before returning to the job.
