16 students injured in Highway 45 bus crash
• 2 mins to read
A Lowndes County School District bus sits overturned off Highway 45 near the Artesia Road intersection Tuesday afternoon. The bus rolled off the highway after colliding with a sedan crossing the intersection, according to a Mississippi Highway Patrol press release. Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff
Parents, good Samaritans and law enforcement officers lined Highway 45 just before the Artesia Road intersection Tuesday after a Lowndes County School District bus and a vehicle collided, sending multiple students and both drivers to the hospital.
Mississippi Highway Patrol responded to the scene at about 3:15 p.m., where a sedan traveling east on Artesia Road crossed into the intersection and then collided with the bus, which was traveling north on Highway 45, an MHP press release said.
The press release said there were 22 students on the bus at the time of the crash, 16 of which sustained injuries ranging from minor to severe as a result of the accident. MHP Public Information Officer Trooper Bryant Flake said the students ranged in age from 6 to 11.
Of the injured students, one was airlifted from the scene to Birmingham, Alabama, and two others were taken by ambulance to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus before later being airlifted to Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson, the press release said.
Both drivers were also taken to Baptist in Columbus for treatment.
The crash remains under investigation by MHP.
LCSD Superintendent Sam Allison, who was on the scene shortly after the crash, told The Dispatch the district already had employees checking on students taken for treatment.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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