By AP/KWMU
Vandalia, Ill. – A school bus accident near Vandalia, Ill. left 16 people injured Wednesday morning.
The bus rolled into a steep ravine about 60 miles northeast of St. Louis. Two of the students were airlifted to a hospital in Springfield, Ill.
Sixteen-year-old Brandy Rubin says she remembers the school bus tires slipping on gravel. But then Brandy says she was knocked out by the violent wreck. When she woke up she says she called her mother on her cell phone. Her mother, Jane Berger, says she heard kids crying in the background.
Brandy was hospitalized with a concussion, neck trauma, cuts and bruises. Aside from the two children airlifted to Springfield, the rest, including the 70-year-old driver Eugene Rogers of Vandalia, were transported to nearby hospitals.
Hospital officials say they were either treated and released, or listed in good or satisfactory condition.