Two students were killed and others were injured after a middle school bus taking them on a field trip crashed in Tennessee on Friday, officials said.
The midday crash on Highway 70 in Carroll County involved the bus, a state dump truck and a passenger vehicle, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said.
“We are heartbroken over the loss of life,” Gov. Bill Lee said, adding that he asked that all Tennesseans pray for those involved and their families.
Multiple students were airlifted to trauma centers in Memphis and Nashville, the highway patrol said.
Seven helicopters were used to transport patients, said Andrew Hoard, the director of Baptist Ambulance in west Tennessee.
The cause of the crash was under investigation Friday.
It also involved a Chevy Trailblazer and a state Department of Transportation dump truck, officials said.
On Friday, it did not appear that the dump truck “had any contributing factors to the crash,” Highway Patrol Maj. Travis Plotzer said.
“The details of the crash are still ongoing. We’re still trying to sort through those details,” Plotzer told reporters at a 5 p.m. briefing.
The Kenwood Middle School bus was transporting students and adult staff to a field trip, officials said.
The bus had 25 students and five adults on board, the dump truck had two adults in it, and there was one adult in the Trailblazer, Plotzer said.
Photos from the scene showed the yellow school bus partially off the highway and part of the vehicle in the air.
Two students were pronounced dead at the scene, Plotzer said. Ambulances and other first responders from Carroll County and surrounding communities responded to the scene of the crash.
Kenwood Middle School is in Clarksville in Montgomery County, northeast of Carroll County, where the crash occurred.
“This is a bad day in Montgomery County,” county Mayor Wes Golden said. “Prayer is absolutely needed right now,” he added.
