8 taken to hospital after school bus, transport crash in Sudbury

Seven students and a bus driver were taken to hospital in Sudbury after a transport collided with a school bus Monday morning on Highway 69, south of the city's downtown.

The OPP says the bus driver is now in hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Sudbury Student Services Consortium, which manages school buses for the four school boards in the region, said in a news release that the crash happened around 8:30 a.m. ET.

It says twelve students were aboard the bus. Police say five were taken to hospital as a precaution, while two have non-life threatening injuries. 

The consortium says all parents have been notified, and support is being offered.

The news release says some students were from the Rainbow District School Board and some from the French public board, know as Conseil Scolaire du Grand Nord. 

A difficult day

Renée Boucher, the executive director of the Sudbury Student Services Consortium, said she's worked at the transportation service since 2003, and this was the first time she's had to deal with a serious crash.

"We've had other collisions in the past and we've had minor collisions, minor injuries, but this is the first," she said.

"So it's very difficult, of course, for everyone."

Boucher said school buses in Sudbury travel a combined 48,000 kilometres every day, which is more than the Earth's circumference. 

"We still need to remember that it's one of the safest ways to get to and from school, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Transport Canada," she said.

Boucher said it was difficult to call the families affected by the crash and hopes she never has to do that again in her career. 

She says the school boards are offering counselling, as is the bus operating company. She also says a counsellor from the community has stepped up to offer services to anyone who needs it in the wake of this incident.