Several Kiski Area school officials planned to ride with children on one of the district’s bus routes Friday, a day after a bus on that route was involved in a three-vehicle collision at a busy junction in Allegheny Township.
According to township police Chief Dan Uncapher, no one was critically injured in the incident that occurred around 8:30 a.m. on Route 56 and Hyde Park Road.
The bus had been transporting 20 kindergarten through fourth-grade pupils to North Primary School.
According to Uncapher, the school bus was heading north on Hyde Park Road with a green light when it was struck by a pickup truck.
The pickup had caught fire and was “fully engulfed by the time we got there,” according to the chief.
According to Uncapher, the bus went forward and collided with a second pickup truck that had stopped at a red signal.
Neither the pickup driver nor the bus driver were wounded. Uncapher declined to name the drivers, citing an ongoing crash investigation.
EMS personnel treated kids and drivers on the spot.
Kiski Area Superintendent Jason Lohr stated the parents of the students aboard the bus were alerted and permitted to take their children home from the crash site.
Several pupils returned to school following the crash. Lohr stated that a counselor, principal, and resource officer were “keeping an extra set of eyes on them” throughout the school day.
Those authorities were to ride along with the children on that route Friday.
“It was a traumatic experience,” Lohr said about the crash. “Children are resilient. “I couldn’t have written a better response.”
According to Lohr, district authorities arrived at the scene around 10 minutes after receiving the initial contact. He praised the efforts of first responders and children while thanking parents and guardians for their patience.
Uncapher also praised the bus driver and children for handling the emergency situation. To get to safety, the elementary pupils used the bus’s emergency exits.
Lohr stated that the district conducts two bus evacuation drills at the start of the school year and another in March to prepare students for emergency circumstances such as the one that occurred Thursday. Drivers for Smith Bus Co., which serves the Kiski Area School District, are “well-trained” for such events, he stated.
All automobiles were towed from the location. Authorities cleared the site just after 10:00 a.m.
Jay Walters of Allegheny Township claimed he observed smoke while dropping his grandson off at school on Thursday morning.
“I turned the corner, and it was like an inferno,” stated the man. “I thought a business was on fire, that’s how bad the smoke was.”
Walters, a longtime volunteer with Hilltop Hose in Harrison, applauded the police and fire departments’ emergency reaction.
“The response guys, they were on it,” stated the worker.
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