4 Kids Killed in School Bus Crash

Four young students heading home were killed yesterday when their school bus was broadsided by a van on a rural highway in southwestern Minnesota, the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star-Tribune reports. "Some of these kids were so little," said a motorist who helped evacuate children from the rooftop emergency hatch of the toppled bus. "And there were just so many. They were screaming and crying. Some were bleeding." Once children were safely on the ground, some called out for siblings still inside.

A dozen injured children were rushed to area hospitals. The weather was clear at the time and it was not immediately known why the bus and at least two other vehicles crashed. The bus was carrying children from kindergarten to 12th grade. “This is a sad night for Minnesota,” said the state's governor. “It is especially heartbreaking when young lives are lost." (More Minnesota stories.)