School bus rolls over after crash with car
Sep. 24—An SUV and a school bus collided in Spring Lake Township on Friday afternoon, causing the bus to roll over into a ditch after striking a power pole.
There were six children on the Spring Lake Public Schools bus at the time, and all of them escaped injuries. They were from the high school and middle school.
With the bus on its side, one of the children said they climbed out of the windows to get out of it.
The crash happened at 2:56 p.m.
Police said the SUV was southbound on 148th Avenue and had turned left onto Leonard Street and into the path of the bus, which was eastbound on Leonard. The bus did have the right of way, said Sgt. Ryan DeVries of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office.
The vehicles collided head on and the bus was sent off the road, where it struck a power pole and came to rest on its side.
The driver of the 2013 Ford Escape that struck the bus, an 84-year-old Spring Lake man, was seriously injured in the crash, police said. He was the only occupant of the SUV and was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, DeVries said.
The bus driver, a 57-year-old Nunica man, was not injured, DeVries said, but an aide aboard the bus, a 78-year-old Fruitport man, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Leonard Street was closed east of 148th Avenue as police and emergency personnel worked the scene of the crash. Consumers Energy responded to fix the broken power pole.
At the scene of the crash, Spring Lake Public Schools Superintendent Dennis Furton said the parents of all the children aboard the bus were quickly notified and responded to the scene to pick them up.
The bus driver will not face any disciplinary action because it does not appear he was at any fault, Furton said.
The crash is still under investigation by the Sheriff's Office, DeVries said.
