3 INJURED IN BUS ACCIDENT

GORDONVILLE -- Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were injured Tuesday when a Jackson R-2 school bus and a car collided head-on on Route OO five miles west of Gordonville.

Twelve students ranging from elementary to high-school age were aboard the bus when the accident occurred at 4:05 p.m. The 8-year-old, Ronna L. Cook of Whitewater Route 1, was the only student injured.

She was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, where she was treated and released to her parents.

The two occupants of the car were injured. They were listed in stable condition Tuesday night at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

A hospital spokesman said Lisa Ann Andrews, 25, of Gordonville, and Sheila L. Nitsch, 30, of Jackson Route 6, were being evaluated in the emergency room and probably would be admitted to the hospital.

Sgt. John Norman of the Missouri Highway Patrol said the 66-passenger bus, driven by Joan Cleaver, 57, of rural Gordonville, was westbound on Route OO.

Norman said the eastbound car driven by Andrews apparently slid on wet blacktop as it rounded a sharp curve and crossed into the westbound lane, where the car and bus collided.

Norman said that after the collision, which broke the front axle of the bus, the bus veered off the right of the roadway and went into a shallow ditch, burying the engine compartment in soft mud. He said the mud probably prevented the bus from turning over.

Cape County Private Ambulance Service dispatched two ambulances. They took the injured people to the hospitals.

Jean Kurre, transportation director for the school district, said the bus involved was No. 36 on Route 36. Kurre said the bus, which had left Jackson, was dropping off students along Highway 25 and Routes A, OO, and F, in and west of Gordonville.

Jackson School Superintendent Wayne Maupin and Business Manager Howard Alexander rushed to the scene to care for the students and make sure they were put on another bus. Some of the students were taken home by parents who went to the accident scene.

Kurre said: "It could have really been a lot worse. If it had not been for the rain and mud, the bus could have hit a tree, or the culvert down the road."

Kurre said the mud slowed the bus down considerably after the collision. That probably prevented it from turning over or crossing the highway and going down a steep embankment on the other side, she said.

She said Tuesday's accident was the first serious school bus accident in the district outside of Jackson in 13 years.

The highway was closed for over two hours while two large wreckers pulled the bus from the muddy shoulder.