Dozens of students, parents hurt as Ky. bus flips

By msnbc.com staff and news services

MUNFORDVILLE, Ky. --?Dozens of students and parents were injured Wednesday night when a tour bus carrying them on a trip to Washington, D.C., turned over in south-central Kentucky moments into the trip, officials said.

The chartered bus was carrying 55 people, including 34 students, 20 parents and the driver, according to Kentucky State Police Trooper Jonathan Biven.

About two dozen people aboard the bus were transported for medical treatment, Hart County schools Superintendent Ricky Line said. One person suffered a head injury, Line said, and others had broken bones.

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None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Line said.

Line said the students, from the Cub Run community, were mostly sixth- to eighth-graders; some were from high school. The trip was not school-related.

"The school didn't have anything to do with it except it's our precious cargo," he said.

The bus was operated by New Image Travel of Evansville, Ind., for WorldStrides.

A phone message and email seeking comment from WorldStride were not immediately answered.

Seven minutes into trip
According to the local Bowling Green Daily News, Biven, the state trooper, said the bus crashed on Kentucky Route 728 in Hart County, about 70 miles south of Louisville, at 5:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. ET).

WLKY TV reported that the bus ran off the right side of the road on a curve, and that no other vehicles were involved. Authorities reportedly took blood samples from the driver but said they did not believe he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The injured were being transported by ambulance or private vehicle to area hospitals.

Hardin Memorial Hospital house manager Jerry Taylor said about seven people were brought there by ambulance with injuries that were not life-threatening.

The bus had traveled just six miles before the wreck happened.

"It happened in the first seven minutes of a 14- to 15-hour bus trip, and it hadn't even left the county," Line said.

Line said he was relieved the injuries were not more serious and recognized the help of emergency workers, who scrambled ambulances to several different hospitals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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