1 Student Dies in Oklahoma School Bus Crash

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Okla. — Officials said three people, including one student, were killed in a head-on collision involving a school bus and SUV on Friday night.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol told FOX News that an SUV traveling northbound on Highway 377 just after 7 p.m. collided with a Konawa Public School District 67-1004 bus. Authorities added that the driver of the SUV swerved into the southbound lane to pass another vehicle in the northbound lane. The driver of the bus, 30-year-old Joseph Scoggins, who was traveling southbound at the time, swerved into the opposite lane to “avoid a collision,” but just as he performed the maneuver, the driver of the SUV swerved back on the right side of the road, hitting the bus head on.

One of the students aboard the bus, who has not been identified, died at the scene as a result of “multiple injuries,” according to the news source, while the remaining students were treated and released from the hospital for their injuries. Scoggins, who sustained head, arm, and leg injuries, was also treated and released from the hospital, FOX News reports. The driver and the passenger of the SUV were trapped inside the vehicle which caught fire, and both were pronounced dead at the scene from what authorities described to the news source as “massive injuries.”

Konawa Public School District 67-1004 confirmed in a Facebook post that six students and a coach of a junior high school girls’ softball team were traveling on the activity bus from a game in Okemah when it was hit head on by a “drunk driver.” The district added in the post that the administration is currently forming a plan to assist students and their families, and that counselors will be available at school to support those in need. The district also said in the post that it appreciates the “flood of support, thoughts, and prayers” from all over the state, as well as the help from first responders on the scene.