According to the officials, there were students ranging in age from elementary school to high school aboard the bus when it went over an embankment and collapsed on a state roadway near Salyersville in eastern Kentucky.
On Monday morning, a school bus drove over an embankment and landed on its side in rural Kentucky. The driver of the bus and 18 students were taken to local hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to severe, according to the authorities who responded to the scene.
According to Chris Meadows, superintendent of Magoffin County Schools, students ranging in age from kindergarten to high school were traveling to school on a bus that was involved in an accident on a state highway close to Salyersville in eastern Kentucky. The accident occurred on their way to class.
There were no other automobiles engaged in the incident.
During an afternoon news conference, Meadows reported a range of emotions in the school district in response to the accident and spoke about the range of injuries that occurred, from mild to critical. According to him, the authorities are grateful that there have been no fatalities to report at this time even if things have been quite calm and sad.
Meadows stated that all of these families, as well as the students and the driver, are in the officials’ thoughts and prayers and that officials are following up with the families and doing everything that can be done to assist them.
According to Paul Howard, the Chief of the Salyersville Fire Department, some of the pupils had already climbed up the slope when the first responders arrived, and the others were assisted up the hill using ropes and baskets.
In a tweet, the Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, stated that the Kentucky State Police were already on the scene and that “we are responding fast.”
The bus took an exit off of State Route 40 close to Salyersville, and then it went over an embankment, according to State Trooper Michael Coleman.
The factors that led to the collision were not immediately apparent. Coleman stated that “we’re really just at the starting stages of the inquiry,” and he added that it was anticipated that the route will be closed for a number of hours.
According to the officials, some of the injured people were evacuated away from the disaster scene by helicopter, while others were transported in ambulances or private automobiles. It was not possible to obtain up-to-date information straight away.
According to Magoffin Judge Executive Matt Wireman, there has been some consideration given to the installation of a guard rail in the vicinity of the crash site; however, the presence of water and sewer pipes underneath the roadway has made it difficult to move forward with the project.
According to him, over the course of a number of years, there had been a lot of collisions reported in this general region.
“That’s common in any rural location where you have a lot of curving roads,” he added. “That’s usual in any rural area.”
Meadows added that the passengers on the school bus did not have access to seat belts of any kind.
After concluding its investigation into a school bus accident in Tennessee in 2020 that claimed the lives of both the driver and a young girl of seven years old, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reissued a plea earlier this month for seat belts to be installed on all school buses.
Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, both senators from the United States, joined other state and local politicians in extending prayers for the affected families.
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