This is a developing story and will be updated.
A vehicle collided with a school bus carrying 27 students Tuesday afternoon near Soldotna. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District said in a social media post the bus was rear-ended around 3 p.m. while taking kids home from school. No students were injured.
The collision happened at the intersection of Rustic Avenue and Echo Lake Road, about one mile south of where Gaswell and Kalifornsky Beach roads meet. The school bus, which travels Route 136, serves Soldotna High School, Skyview Middle School and River City Academy.
Kevin Lyon, the district’s director of planning and operations, said the bus was stopped at a bus stop on a straight section of road when it was hit from behind by a truck. Lyon said students were in the process of getting off the bus at the time, but that no students had left the bus at the time of the collision.
District Superintendent Clayton Holland said Tuesday evening all students on board were evaluated by paramedics before being released from the scene, as is standard procedure. The district sent another school bus to take students home and said paramedics were dispatched to help the driver of the other vehicle involved.
Central Peninsula Hospital spokesperson Bruce Richards said Wednesday the hospital treated a man in his 90s who was involved in a multi-vehicle collision and transferred to another facility. Richards could not say whether that individual was involved in Tuesday's collision.
The collision came amid a stretch of icy weather on the central Kenai Peninsula. Nineteen of the district’s 42 schools had a two-hour delayed start Tuesday due to icy roads and changing weather. Parents had the option to keep their children home if they didn’t think their neighborhood conditions were safe to travel to school
Holland said, to his knowledge, there was no correlation between Tuesday’s collision and the road conditions. He said he thinks the district made the right call to open schools late. Lyon also said the collision didn’t appear to be the result of icy roads.
Lyon said district buses have been rear-ended before, but rarely while carrying students. The bus hit Tuesday had minimal damage but was pulled out of service by the district. Lyon said his office will prepare a crash report to submit to the state.
