LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. – A bus carrying high school students overturned Thursday, killing a 15-year-old girl, officials said. Two other students, the bus driver and the driver of the other vehicle were also injured.
Dianne Koutz, a student at Royal Palm Beach High School (search), died when the bus collided with a pickup truck at an intersection in Loxahatchee, according to Diane Carhart, spokeswoman the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.
Carhart didn't know whether Koutz, who had just turned 15, had been in the bus or the pickup.
Two students from the bus, along with its driver, were taken to a hospital, and the driver of the pickup truck was airlifted to a trauma unit, she said.
"It was a terrible, terrible, terrible situation," Carhart said.
The bus was carrying eight or nine students when deputies believe it ran a stop sign and hit the black Dodge pickup, officials said. The bus rolled over several times and landed on its side in the grass.
The bus was carrying students from several schools in the area, Carhart said. It had most recently picked up students from West Tech, an alternative high school in Belle Glade, before the crash.
Loxahatchee (search) is 16 miles west of West Palm Beach and Royal Palm Beach is 13 miles west of West Palm Beach.
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