Local

7 students suffer minor injuries in Huntersville wreck

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Huntersville police are investigating an early-morning crash involving students from a local high school.

The wreck happened on Verhoeff Drive near Old Statesville Road and involved seven Lake Norman Charter School students in a pickup truck, collided with a car.
 
The principal at Lake Norman Charter said the moment she learned about a crash she immediately stopped what she was doing to come to the scene.
 
"We were greeting students at the front door," said Shannon Stein, director of the charter school. "So as soon as we heard, we ran up that hill over there to get to the accident scene because we were worried. When we arrived, the cars were already on tow trucks."
 
The accident was feet away from Central Piedmont North Campus.
 
The pickup truck and the car, a Honda, had significant damage.
 
Police said some of the students in the pickup truck were in the bed of the vehicle.

Stein said she was surprised their injuries were minor.
 
"They were all alert and in the process of contacting parents," she said.
 
Police said it's not a crime to ride in a truck bed if you're older than the age of 16, but Channel 9 learned the driver was an 18-year-old with a revoked license.
 
Police said the driver was arrested at the scene.
 
School leaders said they were unaware of the charges but are now asking parents to be mindful of who their teens carpool with to school.
 
After the accident, Stein said they made plans to notify both parents and students immediately.
 
"Especially in the day of social media, information can be wrong, so we want to make sure that our families are aware of what's going on and that we're giving them the accurate information," said Stein.
 
We're told the driver of the Honda was the only person taken to the hospital by medics.

To see more local news stories, click here.