Bus crash involving Pennsylvania students sends more than a dozen to hospital

Crashes Wednesday morning on the Capital Beltway involving three tour buses sent more than a dozen people — which included sightseeing Pennsylvania students — to the hospital, according to the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS department.

A box truck struck the rear of a bus of Dallastown Area Middle School students on the way to Washington, D.C., from Dallastown, Pa., after 10 a.m. on the southbound lanes of the Capital Beltway near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, according to Mark Brady, a county fire/EMS spokesman. The crash sent eight passengers to the hospital with neck and back injuries, Brady said.

Behind that accident, a second tour bus struck the rear of a third bus filled with Dallastown students near Kenilworth Avenue, Brady said. A total of four students and an adult from the Dallastown bus were taken to a hospital for minor injuries, according to Brady.

There were two buses involved in the incidents that came from Dallastown Area Middle School and between 60 and 80 students on the trip, said Ron Dyer, acting superintendent for the Dallastown Area School District. Brady did not know where the second tour bus that struck the third bus with students was coming from.

Parents of all the students have been notified and some are driving down to Prince George’s County to be with the students who were hospitalized, Dyer said. The company that provided the buses, Bailey Coach, will send buses down to transport the remaining students back to Dallastown, Dyer said.

All lanes of I-495 South were cleared as of 1 p.m., according to Maryland State Police.