Photo: Lancaster Mennonite School, Lancaster campus. LMS photo. 

A school bus transporting 14 Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Mennonite School students to the school’s Lancaster and Locust Grove campuses was involved in a four-vehicle crash in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania, on the morning of May 17. All 14 students and one driver were transported to Lancaster General Hospital. The driver of another car was also injured.

Police have described the accident as a hit-and-run and are searching for the driver of a light-colored sedan. Eyewitnesses told News 8 that the driver of the sedan tried to pass an over-sized load and “collided with the escort vehicle of the over-sized load and spun into the school bus, flipping it onto its side.”

Gary Hiller, LMS director of marketing and communication, stated that at this point one student’s injuries are critical and that other passengers were transported to the hospital as a precaution. The Lancaster District Attorney’s office released a statement that one student was seriously injured after being ejected from the bus during the accident. Lancaster General Health spokeswoman Mary Ann Eckard told Lancaster Online that, as of 11 a.m., four students had been discharged.

Photos from the accident show the school bus laying on its side with a crumpled front end and crushed windshield.

Hiller told The Mennonite, Inc. in a May 17 phone interview that the students were being transported via a private school bus to both the Lancaster and Locust Grove school campuses from Chester County, Pennsylvania. According to Hiller, LMS sent an e-mail to school faculty and families, informing them of the accident and inviting prayers for those involved in the crash.