No serious injuries in school bus crash

A Dodge Ram truck is wedged under the back of a South Putnam school bus following an accident on Manhattan Road Wednesday. The students on the bus, most of them high school age, were not seriously injured.

Minor "bumps and bruises" to students on a South Putnam school bus were the result of a collision with a pick-up truck on Manhattan Road Wednesday afternoon.

Officials at the scene just south of Antioch Church told the BannerGraphic that the driver of a Dodge Ram pick-up truck ran into the back of the bus that was stopped to let off a child shortly before 4 p.m.

Following the crash, a second school bus was brought in to transport the students, most of them high school age, to the nearby church where they were evaluated by medics with Operation Life.

South Putnam High School Principal Kieth Puckett was on the scene and said there were 15 students on the bus at the time of the crash. Four of the students complained of minor shoulder and back pain and one child hit her mouth when she was jolted forward in her seat.

"We don't have anyone with serious injuries," Puckett said.

School policy, Puckett explained, dictates that any time there is an accident and students complain of pain, the corporation is required to have all the students evaluated by medical personnel.

"That's what's taking so long," he said.

Many parents came to the church and picked up their children after the accident.

The driver of the truck that hit the bus, 29-year-old Jeffry Brown of Greencastle, told Indiana State Trooper Adam Edwards he reached down to pick up his cell phone and when he looked back up, the bus was stopped in front of him and he could not stop in time. He and his passenger were not injured, but the truck had to be towed from the scene.

Edwards said he cited Brown for driving with a suspended license and for unsafe lane movement.