Students sent to hospital

Two cars pounded into the back of a school bus Tuesday morning, sending three Buffalo Gap High School students to the hospital with minor injuries.

State police Trooper Doug Brydge said Sharon K. Burke, 58, of Craigsville, slowed and stopped her bus at an empty driveway along Route 42 at about 7:35 a.m. When she started to pull away a boy ran down the driveway, flagging her to stop, Brydge said.

As Burke slowed to pick him up, the driver of a 2002 Mazda MPV two cars back never noticed. Joyce Via, 69, of Craigsville, took her eyes off the road, police said.

“She looked left and saw the kid,” Brydge said. “When she saw him she said it looked like he was running through the woods.”

Via, traveling at about 30 mph, plowed her Mazda into the car in front of her. That sent a 2002 Kia Spectra driven by Jennifer Reat, 32, of Craigsville, into the back of the bus, Brydge said.

The three Buffalo Gap students were treated and released from Augusta Health in Fishersville.

The two cars each sustained about $5,000 in damage and the school bus only $250, Brydge said.

Authorities charged Via with traffic infraction charges.

The transportation department for Augusta County Public Schools contacted parents of students on the bus through the morning, said Bill Schindler, director of transportation for the schools.

The Tuesday wreck marked the third crash involving a bus this year.

In June two students and a bus driver suffered injuries after one school bus collided with another near Beverley Mannor Middle School.

In February, a silver Ford Focus slammed into the back of a school bus en route to Hugh K. Cassell Elementary School. The crash sent the driver and four schoolchildren to the hospital with minor injuries. Authorities charged Brian Keith Johnston, 39, with reckless driving charges.