courtesy of 9and10 News

A tragic accident left a mother and her son dead.

They crashed into the back of a Mount Pleasant school bus Friday morning.

No students were on the bus, and the bus driver is OK.

But the two in the car that rear-ended the bus died at the scene.

It all started around 7:45 Monday morning when a school bus was stopping to pick up its first students on Weidman Road.

The violent traffic accident took the life of Kimberly Schafer and her son Joshua.

“The next thing I hear is a crash and I told her to get in the house and I walked over there I was grabbing my phone to call 911,” Kayleigh Defrance said.

Kayleigh Defrance’s daughter was getting ready to get on the bus right before the accident.

She and another driver rushed to the car.

“We both walked up to the vehicle to see if we needed to pull someone out and they were both gone,” Defrance said.

Deputies say both driver and front seat passenger of that car died at the scene.

The sheriff tells us the bus driver was the only one inside the bus and wasn’t hurt.

“I at first was like I don’t even want to get in the vehicle right now I don’t want her on a bus I know. It’s not the bus drivers fault,” Defrance said.

Deputies believe sun light may have been a factor in the crash as the car and bus were both facing the sun.

“The sun is in your eye it’s 7:40ish so I mean the sun is right there you don’t see anything,” Defrance said.

The superintendent of Mount Pleasant public schools says the driver of the bus is OK and they are following protocol as they would for any school bus accident.

“We feel fortunate that there weren’t students on the bus and I’m certainly grateful our driver wasn’t hurt, but this is a huge tragedy, very difficult to go through this situation when we need to support our whole community,” Mount Pleasant Superintendent Jennifer Verleger said.

I am just very sorry for everyone’s loss that is involved with this,” Defrance said.

The Mount Pleasant superintendent says while the driver of the bus is physically OK, she’s giving him some time before he gets back behind the wheel.