No L-C students injured in bus crash; bus may be totaled

Students riding a bus to school escaped injury following a crash that broke the axle of a Lynchburg-Clay School bus after it was struck by a car on icy roadways Friday. However, one person riding in the car was transported for injuries. 

L-C Superintendent Greg Hawk told The Highland County Press that the bus was traveling in the early morning hours on state Route 134. 

"The bus was headed back to the middle school to drop off kids and about two miles south of the middle school it met a driver coming from the north," Hawk said. "They met right before they got to a curve and the driver lost control of a car, fishtailed, and hit the bus. By the time it hit the bus, the car had turned completely around backward, so it almost tore the back end of the car completely off."

Hawk said that the driver of the bus and the approximately 10 students she was transporting were not injured.

According to the Lynchburg Area Joint Fire and Ambulance District, one person from the car was transported to Highland District Hospital. 

Both the Highland County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol responded to the scene. The OSHP is investigating the incident but declined to comment Friday afternoon. 

"According to some eye-witnesses, the driver of the bus took evasive action, but due to the road conditions there wasn't much she could do," he said. "We were just lucky that no one on the bus or the bus driver was injured. She did everything she could to avoid the car sliding into them."

Lynchburg-Clay had been on a two-hour delay Friday due to weather. 

Hawk said that according to the district's maintenance superintended, the bus may be totaled, as the front axle was broken in the crash. 

"We are so thankful no one was seriously injured," Hawk said.