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School bus, car collide; 13 hurt
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
A collision between a car and a Howland school bus on the city’s South Side on Friday morning sent 10 children on the bus and both drivers to local hospitals for treatment, but police said nobody was seriously hurt.
Both drivers were taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center, and four of the injured children were taken to St. Elizabeth’s and six to the Boardman campus of Akron Children’s Hospital, according to Patrolman James Rounds of the city police department, who investigated the accident.
The bus was westbound on Indianola Avenue, and the car was northbound on Hillman Street in the 9:50 a.m. crash, which occurred while the children were en route to Mill Creek Park’s Lanterman’s Mill on a field trip. There were 52 people on the bus, Rounds said.
Besides the children, all kindergartners from Howland Springs Primary School, there were 10 or 11 adults on the bus, including the driver, a kindergarten teacher and parent field-trip volunteers, said Howland Schools Superintendent John Sheets.
One parent volunteer went to Akron Children’s, couldn’t be treated there and then went to a Trumbull County hospital to be evaluated, Sheets said.
By late afternoon, all of the injured had been treated and released from local hospitals, Sheets said. The injured suffered bruises but no broken bones, he added.
“We’re thankful that there were no serious injuries. I was also impressed by the supervision that was provided at the scene by the bus driver, by the teacher and the parent volunteers,” Sheets said.
“We were fortunate that the Youngstown Fire Department was close to the scene. ... Their response was quick,” Sheets said. The fire department has a station on Indianola Avenue one block from the crash scene. Rural Metro and Clemente McKay ambulances took the injured to local hospitals.
“Nobody was excited or anything like that. It seemed like they were pretty calm,” Rounds said of the children on the bus.
Another Howland school bus picked up the pupils and adults who didn’t go to hospitals from the accident scene and returned them to the school.
The bus driver was identified as Christine L. Harper, 45, of Russell Avenue, Niles, and the driver of the car, which went under the bus, was identified as Evelyn Jones, 52, of Deer Run Drive, Boardman.
Jones told police she couldn’t recall what color the traffic light was when she entered the intersection, but she remembered hitting the school bus and being dragged west on Indianola. Harper told police she had the right of way when the car hit the bus.
There were no independent witnesses to the crash, and it was unclear who had the right of way when the crash occurred, Rounds said.