11 Hospitalized After Missouri School Bus Wreck

A Missouri schools superintendent says 11 students are hospitalized after their school bus slid off a narrow two-lane highway and overturned in a ditch.

The injured were among 35 students in kindergarten through 12th grade who were on the Valley R-6 School District bus that crashed Tuesday afternoon near Belgrade in eastern Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Superintendent Brad Crocker says the driver was possibly distracted by a student and the rear wheels of the bus slid off the road and into a ditch, causing the bus to overturn.

Three of the students were flown by helicopter to St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Jackie Ferman all three are in satisfactory condition.

Crocker says he doesn’t know of any life-threatening injuries among those taken to hospitals.