School Bus - Car Crash Claims Life of Skiatook High Sophomore

A teenager is dead after his car collided with a school bus early Friday morning. Police blame the rain and the driver of the car, who was apparently speeding. The accident ocurred between Avant and

Friday, February 25th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A teenager is dead after his car collided with a school bus early Friday morning. Police blame the rain and the driver of the car, who was apparently speeding. The accident ocurred between Avant and Skiatook on Highway 11 as both vehicles were headed to school.

The bus stop sign and the curve sign are clearly posted on the section of Highway 11, but Friday morning it didn't make a difference. 17-year-old James Corder was on his way to Skiatook High School driving a silver Acura in the pouring rain.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers say Corder was speeding around the roadâ€™s sharp curves. He hydroplaned, slid sideways and slammed head-on into an Avant school bus filled with children. Troopers say Corder died instantly.

Parents were worried about the 22 elementary students on the bus. None were injured.
"I am shook up,â€ said parent Angel Fridenberg. â€œReally shook up." The parents also say are also worried about young Corder's parents.

The superintendent of Avant Elementary says most people around the area knew Corder.
"Since the young man that was in the accident was one of our former students, it's personal,â€ said Avant Elementary superintendent Jerry Buckner. â€œWe're a real close community and it's hard when something like this happens."

The speed limit was dropped from 65 miles per hour to 55 m-p-h a few years ago, because of the speed that drivers tend to accelerate to on that particuliar stretch of Highway 11. Troopers say the constant and sharp curves make the road deadly. "North of Skiatook all the way to Barnsdall, it's a two-lane road,â€said O-H-P trooper Ron Sawyer. â€œMost of this road does not have shoulders. It's very curvy and very hilly."

Many people described Corder's car after the wreck as looking like a piece of wadded up tin foil.

Parents say they're not sure how their young children will react to the accident. They worry if the children saw Corder's body as it was wheeled away. "I really can't imagine what's going through my kid's heads right now, because I know they saw it,â€ said Fridenberg. â€œThey were there and I don't know what they saw and to me, that's scary."

Fridenberg says it's also scary to think that a young teen lost his life in a matter of seconds on the long, curvy highway. Corder was a sophomore at Skiatook High School.