STRONG — Twenty students from SAD 58 schools escaped injury Monday afternoon as their bus left the road and plowed through about 50 feet of snowbanks coming to rest in a ditch on the Pillsbury Road.

Bus driver Larone Crockett, 58, of Strong was distracted for a moment causing the bus to leave the country road shortly after 3 p.m. Pillsbury Road is located off Norton Hill or Route 234.

The passengers consisted of students from kindergarten through high school, said Crockett at the scene. The snowbanks were still soft and the bus plowed through, he added.

With the help from members of Strong Fire Department, the students were transferred to another bus for the ride home within about 10 minutes, said officer Heidi Wilcox from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

He kept them inside and warm until the second bus could arrive.

An estimate of damage to the bus could not be determined until it was pulled out of the ditch, she said.

abryant@sunjournal.com


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