Freeman Waller doesn’t throw the word &uot;miracle&uot; around lightly, but one look at the splintered fiberglass, the shards of broken glass, the axles and the spilled oil scattered across two lanes of U.S. Highway 80 West Tuesday morning and he was convinced.

Bill Sellier, who handles public relations for the county school system, was even more to the point. &uot;It truly was a miracle of God,&uot; he said.

Nine Brantley Elementary School students were treated and released from Vaughan Regional Medical Center Tuesday after a tractor-trailer struck Dallas County school bus No. 6 in thick fog near the intersection of U.S. 80 and Dallas County Road 44.

Waller knows it could have been much worse. &uot;When I walked up and saw that tractor-trailer, I said, ‘Oh God,’&uot; he recalled.

An excited and obviously still shaken Priscilla Edwards, 9, described what she saw.

The tractor-trailer, a U.S. Xpress truck hauling lawnmowers from Mississippi to Georgia, was driven by Tarcus Wilkerson.

Wilkerson recalled seeing the school bus looming ahead of him in the fog and making a split second decision he would not hurt the children on that bus.

Wilkerson was not able to miss the bus entirely. The children he so worried about were loaded into ambulances &045;&045; some in neck braces &045;&045; but all were released from the hospital later the same day with minor injuries.

Skid marks etched into U.S. 80 indicate Wilkerson slammed on his brakes and cut his truck left before it struck the back left portion of the 1997 model Dallas County school bus.

Willie Carlisle, the bus driver, watched it all unfold in his extended rear-view mirror.

Carlisle was taken to Vaughan Regional after the accident. According to Claire Twardy, spokeswoman for the hospital, Carlisle was released Tuesday afternoon.

Of the 12 children on bus No. 6, no child was seated in the back left seat. There was a child in the back right seat. The tractor-trailer’s impact with the school bus demolished one corner of that bus &045;&045; the corner where no child sat Tuesday morning.

The Dallas County School System, along with the Alabama Department of Transportation, will begin an investigation today, according to Waller.

Doris Teague, spokeswoman for the Alabama State Troopers, also said an investigation into the accident will continue.

While there are still questions to be asked about the wreck, Waller knows a school bus was the safest place for the 12 children loaded inside.

And the students weren’t the only ones saved by a safe vehicle. From the crumbled cab of his Volvo truck, Wilkerson walked away with only a few scratches on his arms and legs.