On Friday a school bus was struck by two dump trucks on a rural highway in Northern Indiana and as a result of the accident four elemetary school students are dead.
School officials have identified the bus driver as Debbie Duvall and she was airlifted to a Fort Wayne hospital. A Parkview Hospital spokeswoman said that she had no information on Duvall Friday night.
Thomas Fletcher is the superintendent of the Twin Lakes School Corp. in nearby Monticello and he
confirmed the students' deaths but he did not provide any further information about them.
Fletcher said that they are doing the best they can to help their families at this time.
Cass County Coroner Gene Powlen showed up at the scene shortly after the 3 p.m. crash and described a grim scene. Powlen said that the victims were everywhere.
1st Sgt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police said that the crash occurred about 3 p.m. on U.S. 24 west of Logansport which is about 70 miles north of Indianapolis.
Tony Slocum, State police Sgt., said that a 59-year-old mo-ped driver slowed suddenly in front of a dump truck traveling east on U.S. 24 and the dump truck tried to stop but clipped the westbound bus coming from the opposite direction and that caused the bus to flip on its side and sent it sliding into the path of a second dump truck, which struck its roof.
The bus than skidded into a ditch and came to rest on the south side of the road and the front end and the roof crushed.
The part of the highway where the crash occurred is straight with a 55 mph speed limit.
Slocum said that the children were probably not wearing seat belts but one child was in a wheelchair buckled down.
Slocum said that seat belts probably would have not made a difference because the bus was hit in the top portion by a dump truck.
Slocum said investigators were still gathering information from the truck drivers, who were not injured. He said that there is no indication that the dump truck drivers were speeding but they will be undergo routine tests for drugs and alcohol.
No other passengers were on board the bus and the students attended two elementary schools in Logansport.
Pam Simons lives next door to Duvall and she described Duvall as a longtime bus driver and she said that the news of the incident was overwhelming.
She said that this incident is a huge tragedy for the community and described Duvall as a tremendous neighbor and that everyone is praying for her.
School confirms 4 students killed in collision
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