On Thursday, March 23, 2017, at approximately 9:00 a.m., officers from the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of Radio Station Road and Audie Lane in La Plata for the report of a motor vehicle crash involving a passenger car and an unloaded school bus.
A preliminary investigation revealed the bus was traveling north on Radio Station Road and a Mazda was traveling south when the Mazda crossed the center line and struck the bus. Pfc. S. Miller arrived and observed the driver of the Mazda was unconscious and not breathing. He, along with Aaron Tyler – a Prince George’s County fire investigator who was in the area – began CPR until medics arrived. The driver, Cheryl Ophelia Mitchell, 56, of Clinton, was transported to the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced deceased. The two occupants in her car, a 25-year-old female and a 56-year-old male, were transported to a hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The driver of the bus was transported to CRMC as a precaution.
The Traffic Operations Unit is investigating.
