SUMMIT TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Five children and a school bus driver suffered minor injuries when their bus drifted into the wrong lane, struck a pickup truck and crashed through a guardrail on Wednesday.
Butler Area School District officials said Valley Lines Bus 204 was traveling south on Bonniebrook Road in Summit Township at 9:10 a.m. when the crash happened. The bus was taking 20 students to Summit Township Elementary School, district officials said in a news release.
The driver and the students who were injured were taken by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital. All five of the children were released by 4 p.m., officials told
.
Pennsylvania State Police said the bus driver, Theodore Codispot, 72, of Butler, had turned right from Portman Road and was heading south on Bonniebrook Road. The bus approached a Dodge Ram, driven by Troy Slater, also of Butler, who was driving north. According to a state police incident report, the school bus "began to drift from the southbound lane into the northbound lane."
The bus struck the driver's side mirror on the truck and then struck a trailer that the truck was towing. The bus continued moving left across the entire northbound lane and struck a guardrail before coming to a stop. The crash was so intense that the front axle of the bus ripped off, along with a front tire.
Slater said when he saw the bus nearly tipped over, he ran to the children.
"I go down and help, and there's a couple people there already, and they started letting the kids out, and the lady would hand them and set them on the guard rail and tell them to stay behind the white line," Slater said.
Herman Fire Department Lt. Darren Osche said he is very proud of the children.
"They were calm. They did a great job," Osche said.
Four other students on the bus were cleared and picked up by parents, who were called to the scene. The other 12 students were taken by another bus to Summit Elementary School to be assessed by the school nurse.
The school district said that state police, Butler County Emergency Management staff, emergency management technicians, Valley Lines personnel, Butler Area School District personnel and local volunteers responded to the scene. The driver and all students on the bus were screened by EMTs.
State police said this is an ongoing investigation, and the bus driver remained in the hospital. Neither the bus company nor state police had spoke with him, as of 4:25 p.m. Detectives said they aren't ruling anything out, including mechanical issues.
Stay with Channel 11 News and WPXI.com for continuing coverage.
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