TRIADELPHIA - An elementary school student was taken to a local hospital after a school bus crashed in the front yard of a Middle Creek Road residence Wednesday.
Ohio County Schools Transportation Director Gary Kestner said one of the 23 children aboard the bus was taken by ambulance to Ohio Valley Medical Center, but he did not know the child's condition.
The remaining children were transported to school by another bus.
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Photo by Andy Lloyd
Law enforcement, emergency personnel and Ohio County public school officials arrive on the scene after this bus crashed on Middle Creek Road on Wednesday morning.
The crash occurred around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, Kestner said, less than a mile from the driver's destination of Middle Creek Elementary School. The bus crossed the center line and sheared off a telephone pole before wrecking into a parked, unoccupied pickup truck. The bus crashed just feet away from a mobile home.
It is unclear whether anyone lives in the trailer.
What remained of the smashed telephone pole was hanging by its wires feet above the road. American Electric Power workers were summoned to turn off power to the immediate area.
Ohio County Schools Superintendent George Krelis, Deputy Superintendent Dianna Vargo and Middle Creek Elementary Principal John Jorden were also on the scene. Kestner said Vargo accompanied the child in the ambulance en route to the hospital. School officials notified the parents of all other children on the bus.
The wrecked bus was one of three new Blue Bird school buses the school system recently received. Kestner said the high seat backs of the new bus were a factor in preventing injuries to any more students.
A Triadelphia Police Department spokesman said the investigation into the cause of the crash was ongoing Wednesday, and a report is not expected to be complete until later in the week.
