Oct 04, 2023

Volleyball team avoids injury after car sideswiped Kan. school bus

Posted Oct 04, 2023 3:30 PM

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Twelve junior high school students riding a USD 231 Gardner-Edgerton school bus on the way home from a volleyball game avoided injury in an accident just before 7p.m. Tuesday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Honda Accord driven by William Andrew Mathes, 31, Independence, was northbound U.S. 73 at Parallel Parkway.

The car traveled left of center and sideswiped a southbound school bus driven by Whitney Lee Wheeler, 33, Gardner.  After impact, the car traveled off the road and struck a ditch.  Wheeler and the student volleyball players were not injured. 

Mathes and a passenger in the car were not wearing seat belts and not injured, according to the KHP.