BYU NewsNet - Students' charter bus collides with semi

A charter bus carrying 45 Payson High School students collided with a diesel truck Monday on a mountain ridge road near Fillmore.

Five students were taken to the hospital after the charter bus sideswiped a tractor-trailer that had become jackknifed across all lanes of the highway, said Lana Hiskey, a public information officer for Nebo School District. The students were treated for minor cuts and whiplash and released later the same day.

The incident occurred around 4:37 a.m., according to several students who had checked the time on their cell phones. The charter bus, carrying the students and their eight chaperones, was the first vehicle to come across the diesel after it lost control, Hiskey said.

The cab had separated from the trailer and went off the road but the trailer stayed obstructing the lanes, forcing the driver of the charter bus to steer into the median to avoid a collision. It sideswiped the diesel in the process, causing several bus windows to crack, and minor damage to the roof.

A district administrator, a parent of one of the students, was on the bus as a chaperone and promptly notified the district. Help was reached, and soon after the incident, a Millard County bus took the students to the armory.

From there, a Nebo School District bus was sent to return the students to Payson. The students got to the high school at roughly 11:40 a.m., Hiskey said.

“I was there [when they arrived], and they were all in good spirits,” Hiskey said. “They were happy, smiling and excited to be home. They said their trip was perfect until about 4:40 a.m.”

The charter bus was approved to drive the students’ luggage back to the high school and the Nebo School District bus took the students out to breakfast before returning them to the school.

Hiskey said the students were members of the Payson High School Choir and had been in California competing at the Anaheim Heritage Music Festival. At the final ceremony in Disneyland, the Payson Chamber Singers’ Choir and Concert Choir both received first place in their events.