22 Children Taken to Hospital After School Bus Rollover

The students were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries

Twenty-two children from Curtis Middle School in Sudbury were taken to local hospitals when the school bus they were passengers on rolled over a guardrail after a crash involving a pickup truck on I-95 southbound in Weston, Massachusetts, according to state and local police.

The students, along with an adult bus driver and bus monitor, were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries or for evaluation and precautionary reasons, with some complaining of back and neck pain.

"All the students were off the bus, they were out here on the guard rail, and when we got here we just started triaging them and put them in different areas," said Weston Fire Chief David Soar.

The crash happened just south of Route 20 in Weston on Wednesday afternoon. All lanes have since been reopened, but there was a traffic backup to Route 2 in Lexington for quite some time.

State police said everyone on board the bus was able to get off of it by exiting the back of the bus. The students were returning home to Boston when the bus got into an accident with a pickup truck.

Some of the students, who were in grades sixth through eighth, were taken to Children's Hospital, while others were taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital and St. Elizabeth's Hospital. State police personnel are being sent to the three hospitals to speak with students' parents and school officials.

Officials at Newton-Wellesley Hospital say 10 students were taken to the hospital's ER for evaluation; however, none were admitted.

“Mostly muscle sprains, a little bit of neck pain and back pain, one had a laceration,” said Doctor Ilan Schwartz, Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Newton-Wellesley.

Eight students were evaluated and treated for non-life threatening injuries at Children's Hospital in Boston.

The remaining four students were taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital and are in stable condition.

In a statement, Sudbury Public Schools Superintendent Anne Wilson said the district is applauding the efforts of first responders and are working to provide resources for students and families.

"We are so grateful it appears none of our students were seriously injured," Wilson said, who also confirmed the students were part of the district's Metco Program and were on their way home to Boston.

The school bus "had contact with" the pickup truck before rolling over, and the pickup truck's driver stayed at the scene, according to state police.

The school bus driver, whom sources have identified as Mitchell Valburn, 54, of Everett, has had several driving infractions, including speeding, improper turns and using improper equipment.

A spokesperson for First Student, the company Valburn works for, released conflicting information about his driving saying, "Based on our records, he has a clean driving record with no previous incidents on file."

The spokesperson also said that drivers go on random re-checks throughout the tenure of their career.

The pickup driver has only been identified as a 29-year-old Belmont man.

An investigation is underway, and it's unclear whether the drivers of the school bus or pickup truck will be cited.

State police originally reported the crash happened in Waltham.

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