Five injured when car hits school bus
A Clark County school bus carrying two special needs students and a teacher's aide was struck head-on by a car Wednesday morning on Summerlin Parkway.
Clark County School District traffic investigator Jeane Hamburg said everyone on the bus - the driver, the teacher's aide and the two students - was transported to University Medical Center.
"They couldn't get the front door open to get the driver out," Hamburg said. "One by one, they were all put on gurneys and taken to UMC."
Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Loy Hixson said Wednesday afternoon that everyone had been released from UMC except for the bus driver. He was unsure of the bus driver's condition.
About 7:40 a.m., a Honda Accord "was traveling east, came over the median and hit the bus head-on," Hamburg said.
She said the bus driver, in the westbound lane, attempted to avoid the Honda, which struck the front left part of the bus.
The 42-year-old driver of the Honda and the occupants of the bus all suffered minor injuries, according to NHP and school officials.
The bus came to rest in the north shoulder of westbound Summerlin Parkway. The Honda, with severe damage to its front end, wound up in the traffic lanes.
The westbound lanes of Summerlin Parkway near Anasazi Drive were closed for about two hours, according to the Highway Patrol.
Hamburg said the standard bus had picked up the students at their homes and was taking them to a special needs program at West Career and Technical Academy on Charleston Boulevard and Desert Foothills Drive.
According to Amanda Fulkerson, spokeswoman for the Clark Country School District, special needs buses make more than 9,000 daily stops.
More than 1,200 buses are on the road every school day in Clark County, the nation's fifth-largest school district. They make 19,000 stops daily, transporting about 100,000 students. In one year, Clark County school buses travel 21 million miles.
Review-Journal reporter Antonio Planas contributed to this story. Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0264.
