Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

Myrtle Beach student killed when motorcycle crashes with bus

A local high school student was killed Monday morning when the motorcycle he was driving was involved in a crash with a school bus near S.C. 31 and Robert Grissom Parkway in the Myrtle Beach section of Horry County.

Marc Chaplin, 18, was a senior at the Academy of Arts, Science and Technology and his base school was Myrtle Beach High School, said Teal Britton, spokeswoman for Horry County Schools. Horry County deputy coroner Tamara Willard said Chaplin died at the scene of the crash of multiple traumas.

Grief counselors were sent to both high schools for students and teachers to talk to if needed, Britton said.

Bucky Sellers, the pre-engineering teacher at the academy, said Chaplin was a smart, friendly student who everyone loved to be around.

``He was a very wonderful young man, no doubt about it. You wonder why things happen to these people you think so much of. He was just a fine young man. He was very respectful of all other people, you never heard him say a bad or angry word about anyone and he was just one of those people you just love to be around,'' Sellers said. ``It sounds like I'm inflating this, but I'm not. He really was a great kid.''

Chaplin was a member of the school's robotics team and went to the national championship in Atlanta last year, Sellers said. Sellers said he and the rest of the team spent a lot of time with Chaplin working on their robots after school.

``Just about everyone from his engineering class went home this morning. They were all pretty upset. We all are. He was just such a good kid. I wish I could have had a whole class of kids just like him,'' Sellers said. ``They're going to wear their yellow robotics shirts tomorrow and Wednesday as a tribute to Marc and some of the kids were talking about putting together a memorial too.''

Sellers said Chaplin, who was born in South Africa, moved to Horry County about eight years ago. He said Sellers started an internship with a helicopter company at the General Aviation terminal in Myrtle Beach three weeks ago and wanted to go into aviation engineering.

Traffic was blocked near the scene through mid-morning. The crash occurred at 8:10 a.m. as the bus was turning on to the S.C. 31 northbound ramp and Chaplin was headed to the academy on International Drive.

No children were on the bus at the time of the crash and the driver was treated at the scene.

The driver was returning to North Myrtle Beach High School after dropping students off at the Academy of Arts, Science and Technology, Britton said. The driver, whose name was not released, has been driving for the school district for four years, Britton said.

Pieces of the bus were lodged into the motorcycle. The front wheel of had been knocked off the bike and was laying a few feet away.

The S.C. Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. Cpl. Sonny Collins said the department's Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team was called to the scene to investigate and work on recreating what happened during the accident. Collins said no tickets were issued at the scene.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.