Updated

More than two dozens students were injured Thursday when a school bus rolled over several times after it ran off a southeast Texas road and into a ditch.

The bus was carrying the students to a high school track meet when the crash unfolded Thursday afternoon near Kirbyville, according to Fox4 Beaumont.

The station reported that 26 students and the bus driver were taken to the hospital. Two of the students were critically injured. They were airlifted to a hospital in Beaumont.

Two coaches and four students escaped unhurt, according to the station.

Hospital officials told the station most of those who were treated  suffered neck and back injuries.

The bus was taking members of the Woodville High School boys and girls track team to a track meet at Kirbyville High School, the Beaumont Enterprise reported.

The school bus was not equipped with seat belts, despite a 2007 Texas law requiring them, according to the paper.

The bus may have fishtailed, two witnesses told KJAS-TV. There was a light rain falling at the time and the highway was wet.

Lisa Ogden and her mother Ruth Rogers told the station they saw the bus skid across the opposite lane of traffic and then strike a barbwire fence which caused it to roll over.

Click for more from Fox4 Beaumont.