8 students hurt when truck hits school bus

At least 11 people are injured after a head-on crash between a truck and a Middletown City Schools bus carrying an estimated 35 students to Middletown Christian Schools.

Just before 8 a.m. today, Zachary Cornett, 16, of Franklin Twp. was driving a Ram 1500 truck west in the 6100 block of Manchester Road in Franklin Twp. when he reportedly lost control, side-swiped a passing truck and crashed head-on into the school bus, said Sgt. Tom Bloomberg of Ohio Highway Patrol’s Lebanon post.

Bloomberg said the driver was wearing a safety belt but passenger Mark Cornett, 51, the boy’s father, was not wearing a safety belt.

Zachary Cornett was treated at Atrium Medical Center for minor injuries while his father has more serious lacerations and broken bones, Bloomberg said.Eight students suffered non-life threatening injuries. The school bus driver, Kimberly Berger of Monroe, suffered a leg injury, Bloomberg said.

The crash occurred just off the bridge over Interstate 75. A salt truck from the Warren County Engineer’s Office was on its way to treat the bridge when the crash occurred, said Savannah Shafer, spokeswoman for the engineer’s office.

“Typically depending on temperatures and weather, we’ll go out and treat all roads,” Shafer said. “With the temperature and way it was sticking we were only hitting trouble spots and bridges. At 8 a.m. the temperature dropped.”

Milt Thompson, business manager for Middletown Schools, said eight of the 35 students on the bus chose to be transported to the hospital for further examination.

“A Middletown Christian Schools representative came down and was accounting for them as we started to call parents and guardians about the accident,” he said.

Nicole Winkler of Manchester Road said she witnessed the crash as she went to drop her children off for their bus stop at the end of her long driveway.“It was terrible; the kids were terrified,” Winkler said. “I always have to watch because I’m afraid my kids will get hit getting on the bus.”

Winkler said the bridge is troublesome in icy weather and is “never salted when it should be.”

Bloomberg said Zachary Cornett was cited for failure to control.

“Drivers have got to have the responsibility to know the weather conditions present,” Bloomberg said. “The overpass was a solid sheet of ice.”

Tammy Mason of Manchester Road said the speed along the road should be reduced from its current 45 mph.

“That’s ridiculous for down here because of the dips and blind driveways,” Mason said. “Manchester is very congested and they fly down through here.”

In 2011, there were 12 injury crashes involving school buses in Butler and Warren counties, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

“Usually we’ll get a side-swipe or someone backs up into a bus, usually at a slow speed,” Bloomberg said. “This one had pretty substantial damage.”