Two Dayton school bus crashes send 12 to hospitals

Two Dayton Public Schools buses were involved in crashes that sent a total of 12 people to the hospital Monday morning, but injuries in both cases were deemed minor.

In the more serious crash, a white sedan plowed into the back of a DPS bus in the 2000 block of Troy Street at about 8 a.m., sending nine students, the bus driver and the driver of the car to local hospitals. There were 32 children on the bus at the time, as students were headed to Kiser PreK-6 school, more than a half-mile south.

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“We are so happy that the children and the bus driver will be OK,” DPS Superintendent Rhonda Corr said. “They are going to be sore for a while, but their health and safety is always a top priority. Our thoughts are also with the driver of the car that struck our bus.”

Dayton police officials did not say Monday afternoon how that driver had been cited.

Taiesha Haynes had three children on that school bus, and she got a scary call from her daughter right after the crash.

“She was screaming; I couldn’t really understand what was wrong,” said Haynes, who came to the scene. “But they looked like they hit the back of the seat, the side of the bus, something like that. No injuries, no bleeding, just hurt and crying, scared.”

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Haynes drove her kids to Dayton Children’s Hospital because she was told it might take awhile for an ambulance because so many kids were being evaluated.

The other incident Monday happened around 7:30 a.m., when a DPS bus made contact with a pedestrian at the intersection of West Third Street and Elmhurst Road, across from the Dayton National Cemetery.

The female pedestrian was taken to Miami Valley Hospital with minor injuries, according to Dayton Police, who added that the DPS bus driver was cited for failure to yield, amid some conflicting witness statements.

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Dayton Public Schools spokeswoman Jill Drury said 29 students were on the bus at the time of the incident, headed to World of Wonder school, and none was injured. Drury said the driver, in her first year with DPS, is on leave pending drug test results, as is standard procedure.

WHIO-TV’s Mike Campbell contributed to this report.

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