Truck driver, students hurt in bus collision

BELTON, Mo. -- A pickup truck hit a school bus nearly head-on on a Cass County road Wednesday afternoon, sending the pickup's driver and eight students to hospitals, authorities said. The students' injuries were considered non-life-threatening, while the 59-year-old truck driver was badly hurt and had to be flown to a hospital by air ambulance. Forty students from seventh or eighth through 12th grades in Belton schools were on the bus when it was struck by the pickup on a county road, authorities said. Belton is about 20 miles southeast of Kansas City.