TOLEDO, Ohio – A school bus carrying high school students collided with a minivan and both were tipped on their sides, sending 10 students and three others to hospitals, the State Highway Patrol said.
None of the injuries to the students was life-threatening, said a patrol spokesman, Lt. John Altman. Injuries to the two occupants of the minivan were serious, he said.
The bus was heading toward Toledo Express Airport when it collided with the van around noon, Altman said. Students were able to crawl out of the bus through the rear emergency door and emergency hatches in the roof, he said.
All of the students' injuries were minor, and five have been treated and released, said Doreen Cutway, spokeswoman for St. Luke's Hospital in suburban Maumee.
Amelia Wood, a 16-year-old sophomore from Bowsher High School, said everyone screamed when the bus turned over.
"Some of us saw it coming," she said. "I was looking up at the ceiling and didn't see what happened. The next thing I knew we were on our side."
Wood said she and another student helped the driver, who couldn't get out of her seat.
"She was shaking like crazy," Wood said.
The accident sent the van down an embankment and scattered debris across a four-lane highway. The van's front-end was crumpled, and firefighters had to cut the vehicle's roof open and pull off its side doors to free the two occupants.
John Gilliland, business manager for Toledo Public Schools, said he arrived about 20 minutes after the accident to find students standing near the wreckage.
"They seemed to be very calm," he said.
Gilliland said he talked to the driver, who inquired about the condition of the students.
The students, who are from various high schools in the area, were on their way to a high school program at the airport that teaches aircraft mechanics.
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