22 students, 2 drivers injured in Indiana school bus crash

AURORA, Ind. -- Twenty students and two drivers were injured in a crash involving a school bus and a garbage truck, according to Indiana State Police and hospital officials.

WCPO reports the South Dearborn Community School Corporation bus was headed eastbound on State Route 350 just before 8 a.m. when it collided with a stationary Rumpke garbage truck near Mount Sinai Road, Indiana State Police Sgt. Stephen Wheeles said.

Dakota Jones, a 7th grader, was sitting near the front of the bus when it crashed.

"All I saw was dust. I heard noises, I heard people screaming and I went to the back of the bus, just trying to get away from this," Jones said. "And then, people were just - total panic. I was in shock."

Twenty students aboard the bus at the time were injured, according to Dr. Richard Cardosi, medical director of Highpoint Health. The bus driver and the Rumpke driver were also injured, hospital officials said. None of the injuries were life-threatening. Most of the injured were treated at Highpoint Health in Lawrenceburg. Two people were transferred to Cincinnati hospitals, including one 13-year-old brought to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The Rumpke driver, who was not in the truck at the time of the crash, was also taken to a hospital because he was injured by debris, according to Rumpke spokeswoman Molly Yeager.

Four students on the bus at the time of the crash were transferred to another bus and taken to school, Wheeles said. A parent picked up one of those students at the school and took them to a hospital.

Superintendent Eric Lows said most of the students on board attend South Dearborn Middle and High Schools. Students on the bus included those going to: St. John Lutheran School and St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Moores Hill Elementary and the South Dearborn campus, which includes Aurora Elementary School, South Dearborn Middle School and South Dearborn High School, Lows said.

Of the students injured, most were seventh through ninth graders. One sixth grader and one high school junior were also injured.