Philadelphia students on charter bus that crashed in Maryland; 25 hurt
HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. -- Students from a school in Philadelphia were on board a charter bus that crashed on Interstate 95 in Maryland on Monday morning, leaving 25 people injured.
School district officials would not yet say which school the students were from, but said they were on their way to a field trip in Washington, D.C.
They were on a bus owned by Phoenixville, Pa. based Werner Coach. It crashed in the Havre de Grace area.
There were 26 children, three chaperones and one driver on board, police said.
Rescuers say two critically injured patients were flown to hospitals. That includes one adult and one child. That child was taken to the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.
Video from the scene showed the damaged bus on its side. There was damage to the hill and guardrail on the right side of the highway.
Police say the cause of the crash isn't yet known. They say a car was involved, and the driver is being interviewed. Chopper video showed a damaged blue car on the scene.
At one point a number of Philadelphia police officers could be seen nearby. Officials say the three busloads of officers were not involved in the crash, but happened upon the scene while on the way to a police memorial in Washington, D.C.
That includes 23 recruits, 54 officers and family members of law enforcement.
"Wonderful, wonderful help. They were assisting in patient care and I believe they got everyone out," said Peter Quackenbush, chief of the Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps.
Edie Ritchie said was on one of those buses.
"We got off and started tending to the injured," she said by phone Monday afternoon. "It was total mayhem."
She said they were actually late departing Philadelphia. Otherwise, they would have been far ahead of the bus that crashed.
"Everything happens for a reason," she said.
The highway was stopped in both directions while helicopters landed, but northbound traffic is flowing again.
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