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Six people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured after a charter bus carrying students from a high school was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on a central Ohio highway on Tuesday morning, according to county and state highway officials.
The crash took place just before 9 a.m. on Interstate 70 near State Route 310 in Etna Township, outside of Columbus, on Tuesday according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The crash involved five vehicles, Lt. Nathan Dennis of the highway patrol said at a news conference near the scene on Tuesday.
The identities of those killed and injured were not immediately released.
John Wieber, the deputy director of Licking County’s emergency management agency, said by phone that he was unsure of the injured victims’ conditions, adding that officials expected to provide a fuller update later Tuesday night.
One vehicle was a charter bus that was taking students and chaperones from a school in eastern Ohio to the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus, according to Derek Varansky, superintendent of the Tuscarawas Valley Local School District.
“We understand from law enforcement that there may be multiple serious injuries and we are working to learn the details,” he wrote in a release from the district.
Etna Township is a city with more than 18,000 residents in Licking County in the central part of the state.
“It is our worst nightmare to have a bus full of children involved in such a terrible crash,” Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
The Licking County Emergency Management Agency urged drivers to avoid Interstate 70 in the area of State Route 310 and said that both directions were closed. The Ohio Department of Transportation said the closure could last hours.
Troopers, fire and emergency crews were working at the scene, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. Eighteen people on the bus were injured and were taken to seven area hospitals, Lieutenant Dennis said. He declined to say how many people were killed before victims’ families could be notified.
Lieutenant Dennis said the charter bus was from Pioneer Trails.
“Pioneer is fully cooperating with the authorities as we work to find the cause of the accident,’’ the company said on Facebook. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those impacted by this accident.”
Cameras from the Ohio Department of Transportation showed plumes of smoke over the scene.
A spokeswoman for OhioHealth, a system of hospitals, said they were treating five patients for minor injuries related to the crash.
Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.
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Johnny Diaz
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