A bus driver and four schoolchildren were taken to a Yuma hospital with minor injuries this morning after the bus rear-ended a semi-tractor trailer in rural Yuma County, authorities say.
A tractor-trailer was eastbound on Colorado 34 and making a right-hand turn onto Yuma County Road H at about 7:42 a.m. when the bus, which was behind the truck, rammed into the back of the semi, according to Trooper David Hall, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol.
The bus driver and all 12 children aboard — ranging from kindergartners to 10th graders — were taken to Yuma District Hospital with “bumps and bruises,” said Yuma School District Superintendent Dennis Veal.
“It could have been much worse,” Veal said. He said all of the children were wearing seat belts.
Eight of the children were not injured, according to a news release. State Patrol officials originally said all 12 children were injured.
The four children who received minor injuries were Josh Gordon, 15; Ansley Brophy, 14; Paul Brophy, 8; and Amber Snelling, 16.
Bus driver Bunnie Hardy, 58, had to be extricated from the minibus, which has a capacity of 14 students, he said. Hardy, who has more than 13 years of experience, has minor injuries, Veal said. The accident happened about one mile East of Yuma.
“The driver is going to be just fine,” he said.
The accident is under investigation, Hall said. No citations have been issued.
Yuma is about 30 miles west of the Kansas border in northeastern Colorado.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
