Driver in School Bus Accident Arrested

Seven children were hurt in Woonsocket Thursday morning when Melissa Escomilha, of Woonsocket, hit a school bus full of children, police said.

There were 31 children on the Valley Transportation bus. Five of them were hospitalized with minor injuries. The two children in Escomilha’s car were evaluated by emergency personnel and released to their father, police said.

WPRI reported that Officer Zachary J. Bienkiewicz was responding to the bus crash when he noticed a woman with bruises to her facing walking down Willow Street with a child. He said he tried to approach the woman, but he instead continued to the accident scene after the woman grabbed the child and ran away.

“She immediately began to yell, ‘that bus ran the stop sign,’” Officer Zachary J. Bienkiewicz said in the report. “She was adamant that she ‘can’t go back to jail.’”

Escomilha was arrested on Thursday and charged with driving with a suspended license, leaving the scene of an accident and obstruction.

Photo courtesy of the Woonsocket Police Department.