A tour bus traveling from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. turned over just moments into the trip, injuring dozens of students and parents. The private tour bus went off the right shoulder on State Road 728 in Hart County while trying to go around a curve and turned over on its passenger side at about 6:30 p.m on Wednesday night.
Including the driver, the tour bus was carrying 34 students and 20 parents, most were sixth to eighth graders; some were from high school. The trip was not school-related, but was organized by the parents and WorldStrides, a student travel company.
The tour bus had just left Cub Run Elementary School in Hart County with plans to drive overnight. Hart County schools Superintendent Ricky Line said, “It happened in the first seven minutes of a 14- to 15-hour bus trip, and it hadn’t even left the county.”
Kentucky State Police Trooper Jonathan Biven of the Bowling Green post said the tour bus crashed about 70 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky which means they were only about four to five miles from the school before the crash happened.
Around two dozen people on the bus had to be transported to the hospital for medical treatment. The injuries were not life-threatening; some complained of neck and shoulder injuries, some had broken bones and minor scrapes and bruising. One person suffered the most severe injuries with a suspected broken back, wrist and a collapsed lung.
A blood sample was drawn from the tour bus driver for a toxicology test, which is reported as standard procedure.
The tour bus was operated by New Image Travel of Evansville, Indiana, for WorldStrides.
The bus was removed roughly three hours after the crash.
