(The Associated Press circulated the following story on March 31.)
BEAVER FALLS, Pa. — A school bus was grazed by a freight train today but no one was injured because the driver was able to get all the students off the bus after it stopped running at a railroad crossing.
The rear emergency door of the Big Beaver Falls Area school bus was hit by a 36-car Norfolk Southern freight train, railroad spokesman Rudy Husband said. The driver got all the children off the bus before tractors being hauled on the train struck it, police said.
State police didn’t immediately identify the driver but said he worked for McCarter Transit of Beaver Falls.
It was unclear how the bus became disabled at about 8:30 a.m. on Midvale Road in Big Beaver, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Damage to the bus was minor.
School district officials didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
The train was on its way from Chicago to Conway, Pa.