Three Bellefonte Area School District students and their bus driver were sent to the hospital to be treated for injuries after a school bus crash on Wednesday morning in Spring Township.
Emergency responders were dispatched at about 7:50 a.m. to the 2900 block of Greens Valley Road for a report of a bus over an embankment. They found the bus stuck in a tree and the driver trapped inside, according to a news release from the school district and Spring Township police.
After extraction that “took an extended amount of time,” the driver was flown to UPMC Altoona, according to the release. Students were evacuating on their own when responders arrived on the scene.
Eight children were on board the bus and three were taken to Mount Nittany Medical Center to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Pleasant Gap Elementary School Principal Duffy Besch wrote in a post on the school’s Facebook page that “all parents were notified of their children’s conditions and all are doing well at this time.”
The cause of the crash is under investigation. The bus was equipped with cameras that will be reviewed.
Pleasant Gap, Penns Valley, Mount Nittany Medical Center and LifeLion EMS, Centre Hall and Pleasant Gap fire companies, Bellefonte and Spring Township police and Bellefonte Area School District staff assisted at the scene.
Besch wrote that families near the scene of the crash also assisted the students.
“We do want to share that the students on the bus did an amazing job of stepping up and helping one another during this incident,” Besch added. “They helped each other off the bus and supported each other while waiting to return to school. They are to be commended for their actions and how they worked together. Our students are truly amazing.”
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