HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Several people, including students, were seriously injured after a charter bus overturned here on Saturday night, officials said.
The bus, carrying students and chaperones from Hartland Middle School, was returning from a field trip to Chicago when it ran off the road and tipped over on its side while exiting I-96 at Burkhart Rd., according to a post on Hartland Consolidated Schools' Facebook page. The weather conditions at the time of the crash were described as dark and rainy, with poor visibility, according to WHMI.
A total of 17 of the 42 passengers on board, including the bus driver, were transported to the hospital, The Livingston Daily reports. Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy said, according to the school district, that some of the passengers reportedly suffered a broken neck, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken hand. He also said that the list of injuries was not all-inclusive, nor specific to one person. (Initial reports of the crash stated that most of the students on board were unharmed, and that no one was seriously injured.)
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the incident, involving the bus from Ground Travel Specialist Inc. of Brownstown Township, and said that alcohol or drugs did not appear to have been a factor, according to WHMI. Murphy added that the investigation will be sent to the Livingston County Prosecutors Office for review upon its completion.
Read the full statement from Murphy, posted on Hartland Consolidated Schools' Facebook page, below.
