Bus crash affects 22 West Branch pupils

SEBRING -- Ohio State Highway Patrol is still investigating a crash that sent 22 elementary school children and their bus driver to a hospital around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
The patrol said a West Branch school bus driven by 51-year-old Dennis Howell of North Benton was southbound on Bandy Road, north of Sebring in Smith Township, when it hit the back end of a trailer that was hitched to a dump truck.
The truck and trailer, owned by John Batzli of East Rochester, were parked on the road.
No citations had been issued as of Thursday afternoon.
The pupils and Howell were taken to Alliance Community Hospital, where they were treated for bumps and bruises, then released, said Smith Township Police Chief John Siranovic.