Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

Driver hits school bus, injuring 12

Police charged the driver of a sport utility vehicle after a school-bus crash Thursday in Brunswick County, N.C., that sent 12 children to the hospital with minor injuries. The motorist, whose name was not released, was charged with failure to reduce speed after rear-ending a school bus carrying about 24 to 30 South Brunswick High School and middle school students, said Sgt. Chad Parks of the N.C. Highway Patrol. The crash happened at about 7:40 a.m. on N.C. 211, near one of the entrances to St. James Plantation, Parks said. Twelve South Brunswick High School and middle school students were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure, and because some students were in shock, said Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Katie McGee. "There do not appear to be any major injuries," she said. "For a lot of the children, they were just shaken." Nine were transported to Dosher Memorial Hospital in Southport, N.C., in an EMS bus, and another three were transported by their parents, McGee said. All of the students who were taken to the hospital were high schoolers who had been sitting at the back of the bus, McGee said. Contact ALIANA RAMOS at 443-2434.