An icy approach on a bridge sent a Symmes Valley school bus off the side of the road and several children to the hospital.

Tuesday, February 01, 2000

An icy approach on a bridge sent a Symmes Valley school bus off the side of the road and several children to the hospital.

A Symmes Valley School bus, carrying five passengers and the driver, went off the side of the road about one and three-tenths miles out Wolf Creek Road at about 6:52 a.m. this morning, said Mark Duncan, Ohio Highway Patrol dispatcher.

As a precaution, the children were sent to a Huntington, W.Va., hospital for minor injuries, Symmes Valley superintendent Tom Ben said.

"We had a stretch of road," Ben said. "A bus was approaching a small wooden bridge. As the driver was turning to get onto that bridge, the wheels locked on the driver and the bus could not maneuver the bridge. The front end went over the side of the bridge."

The bus ended up on its side, and the students were quickly removed from the scene and taken to a neighbor’s home, Ben said.

More than likely, ice on the stretch of road about 70 yards before the bridge contributed to the accident, Ben said.

"The road itself is not a bad road," he said. "But there was an approach that was very icy."

It took almost two hours to retrieve the bus, said Mark Johnson, Windsor Township volunteer firefighter.

"The bus was completely off the road," Johnson said. "The bridge is in a curve. It’s a wooden bridge, 10-foot wide. It’s just a bad place right there. The bus slid off the road and turned over."

The incident is still under investigation, however, Ben added.

"We’re going to continue to get a report on this from the bus driver and receive information from the highway patrol, who were on the scene," he said.

Even if an accident is minor, school officials always want to look into the incident to ensure that it will never happen again, Ben said.

"Our first priority is the safety and the welfare of the students," he said. "We never want to risk having an injury to any of our employees or our children. It was just a very unfortunate set of circumstances this morning."