Cape students escape injury in school bus accident

Eight Cape Girardeau students escaped injury Thursday when their school bus careened off the road and into a field.

Shortly after departing from Clippard Elementary School at 3:20 p.m., the driver of bus No. 10 lost control of the vehicle when a tire slipped off the road onto a soft shoulder along Harper Road near Twin Lakes.

The bus left the roadway and traveled into a field, where it clipped a telephone pole. Superintendent Mark Bowles said while the students weren't injured, the driver may have dislocated his shoulder. Most of the damage was sustained by the telephone pole and on the driver's side of the vehicle, where the swing-arm stop sign and a window were broken.

Another school bus already in the area finished the route. Parents of the students involved were immediately contacted.

Bowles said this is the first major accident his district's buses have been involved in during his two years as superintendent.

"We've had fender-benders, but nothing that resulted in damage before," Bowles said.

The school district has a transportation contract with First Student bus company.