Tennessee School Bus Crash Kills 2 Kenwood Middle Students, Injures Several Others

Two students from Kenwood Middle School in Clarksville were killed and at least seven other people injured Friday when their school bus was involved in a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 70 in Carroll County near Huntingdon, Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The midday collision included a Tennessee Department of Transportation dump truck, a Chevrolet Trailblazer and the school bus carrying 25 students and five adults on a field trip to Jackson; authorities say preliminary indications are that the TDOT dump truck did not contribute to the crash, but the cause remains under investigation. Maj. Travis Plotzer of the Highway Patrol called the wreck "a parent's worst nightmare" as officials confirmed that at least seven people were airlifted to hospitals around the state. Four patients taken to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville were in stable condition Friday, while 19 others transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital–Carroll County were evaluated and released, though it is unclear how many were actually injured. The crash adds to long-standing concerns over school transportation safety on rural highways, as investigators work to reconstruct what led to the fatal impact.