2 Dead, 12 Hurt in Train-School Bus Crash

A school bus failed to yield to railroad crossing and stop signs and collided with an empty freight train in North Dakota yesterday afternoon, killing the bus driver and a 17-year-old student and injuring 12 other people, the Highway Patrol says. The accident happened on a gravel road a few miles east of Larimore in the northeastern part of the state, about 100 miles north of Fargo. A Highway Patrol spokesman says the train struck the bus on the passenger side, near the doors. The 62-year-old bus driver and a 17-year-old student were ejected from the vehicle and killed.

The ages of the students on the bus ranged from 5 to 17, the Highway Patrol spokesman says. Some of the injured suffered broken bones; three were in "very serious condition," he says, describing the scene as chaotic. He says it was a typical rural railroad crossing, with no crossing arms. "The train has the right of way" and the weather was clear at the time, the spokesman says. (More North Dakota stories.)