Beverley Manor bus crash injures 3

STAUNTON — Two students and a bus driver were injured Wednesday when one bus collided with another stopped for traffic on a road exiting Beverley Manor Middle School.

None of the injuries were serious. Three people were taken to Augusta Medical Center for observation, said Assistant Swoope Volunteer Fire Company Chief Kevin Wilkes.

Trooper S.A. Simmons of the Virginia State Police said there were no charges in the accident.

Simmons said the first bus carrying 48 students had stopped at about 3:05 p.m. for traffic about 1,000 yards from Beverley Manor.

The second bus carrying 22 students rounded a curve and the driver of the bus “looked up in the mirror” when a student called out his name to tell him of the bus in front of him.

The driver could not stop in time, and hit the first bus. The front passenger side and the windshield of the second bus were damaged.

Simmons said the second bus was traveling about 25 mph.

William Schindler, athletics and transportation director for the Augusta County Schools, said the injured students were 13 and 14 years old.

He said one of the students suffered a neck injury and another a knee injury. The female driver of the first bus had neck and shoulder injuries.

Schindler said 911 was called and parents of the students were notified by the middle school.

It was the second bus crash in slightly more than three months and third in just over a year for Augusta County Schools.

Six people, including four elementary schoolchildren, were slightly hurt in February when a car slammed into the back of an Augusta bus near Dooms. Seven students suffered minor injuries last year when an elderly school bus driver fell asleep at the wheel and drove off a road near Greenville, according to police.

Most of the school district’s more than 150 drivers are retirees, Superintendent Gary McQuain said after the 2008 crash. The district, he said, boasts an excellent driver safety record.