Fifteen children, driver injured as Ill. school bus overturns

VANDALIA, Ill. -- A school bus carrying 15 students clung precariously to the narrow gravel along a winding rural road for more than 300 feet before rolling into a steep ravine and injuring everyone on board, authorities said.

Sixteen-year-old passenger Brandy Rubin said she remembered the tires slipping on gravel, but then was knocked out by the wreck.

"The next thing I know, someone woke me up and handed me my cell phone," she said.

Her 6-year-old sister Dakota Rubin was on the bus but not seriously hurt.

Brandy called her mother, Jane Berger, who was working in a hair salon.

Berger said she panicked when she got the call.

"She was crying and I could hear a lot of kids crying in the background," Berger said.

"No mother wants to hear that."

Brandy was hospitalized in Vandalia with a concussion, neck trauma, cuts and bruises. Two children were airlifted to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, the Montgomery County sheriff's department said.

The rest, including the driver, were transported to hospitals near this southern Illinois town and were either treated and released, or listed in good or satisfactory condition, according to hospital officials.

Fillmore Fire Chief Bill Wood happened on the scene while driving to work, and reported the accident.

"I saw kids climbing up the bank on their hands and knees," Wood said. "They were bleeding and obviously injured."

One child was pinned under the bus.

Montgomery County Sheriff Jim Vazzi said the accident happened around 7:30 a.m. just north of the village of Van Burensburg, some 60 miles northeast of St. Louis. He said the narrow road was repaved recently and crews had not yet erected the guardrail that was to go in the spot where the bus left the road.

The bus came to rest about halfway down a 40-foot-deep ravine, its front bashed in.

Vandalia School Superintendent Garry Krutsinger said the two transported to Springfield were in critical condition Wednesday.

The parents of 14-year-old Shawna Ward confirmed she was one of the critically injured. The Fillmore couple said emergency technicians found her pinned under the bus.

"Her pelvis is crushed. Her legs are crushed. Her spine seems to be OK," said Debbie Ward.

The Wards said Shawna, a seventh-grader, was on a respirator and doctors were trying to halt internal bleeding and stabilize her. Debbie Ward said her daughter's eyes were "panicky ... going back and forth."

Ward remained listed in critical condition Wednesday night. A nursing supervisor said the other patient, whose name wasn't released, also was in critical condition.

Vandalia school officials identified the driver as 70-year-old Eugene Rogers of Vandalia.

Wood, the fire chief, said he found Rogers "covered in blood" but helping children escape the bus. "He wasn't leaving until the last kid was out," Wood said.

Rogers underwent surgery for facial trauma. His injuries were not life-threatening, said Kim Shanks, spokesman at Fayette County Hospital in Vandalia.

Thirteen students were taken to hospitals in Vandalia, Greenville, Hillsboro and Litchfield.

Illinois State Police accident reconstruction experts were investigating the cause.

Linda Schulte of the school superintendent's office said the students on the bus were of all ages from kindergarten through high school.

The Vandalia district has about 1,800 students in Fayette County and parts of Montgomery County.

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Associated Press writer John O'Connor in Springfield contributed to this story.