At Least 4 Students Hurt in Indiana School Bus Crash

COLFAX, Ind. (AP) – A school bus loaded with children veered off a wet road in central Indiana on Friday and overturned in a farm field, injuring at least four children, authorities said.

The Clinton Prairie school district bus crashed near the town of Colfax at around 8 a.m. while taking students to school.

Three of the injured children were taken by ambulance to a hospital in nearby Frankfort, and one was taken to a hospital in Lafayette, said and Clinton County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Joe Mink. He said he didn’t know of any life-threatening injuries, but had no further information.

The bus driver and the 20 other students who were onboard were taken to the Frankfort hospital as a precaution, Mink said. Students’ parents were summoned to the hospital to make decisions regarding their medical care.

The crash happened along a straight road that was wet from morning rain, but police were still trying to determine what caused the wreck. The bus ended up on its side, with many of its windows broken.

“The wet road … it has to play in it,” Mink told The Associated Press. He said investigators were going over the bus “piece by piece” to determine if it had any mechanical trouble, but he added that he doubted that was a factor.

“All of a sudden the bus started tipping and everyone was, like, falling,” student Alysa Eitner told WTHR-TV. “They were crying and scared. They were really scared.”

Renee Crick, the Clinton County emergency dispatch center director, told The Associated Press that the crash happened as the bus was carrying elementary, middle and high school students to the district’s single K-12 school. No other vehicles were involved.

School district officials didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.