12 students taken to hospital in Wake County school bus crash
WAKE FOREST, North Carolina -- A Wake County school bus was involved in a crash with a Chevrolet Suburban along Ponderosa Service Road south of Falls of Neuse and Capital Boulevard early Wednesday.
Pictures from the scene showed students being cared for by EMS workers and then loaded into ambulances around 7 a.m.
Twelve students were taken to the hospital after the crash, along with the bus driver, 33-year-old Victoria Gale West-Caesar, and the driver of the Chevy, 27-year-old Alberta Sandra Caro Mendoza.
"All minor injuries, mostly head, neck, back-type injuries and they're being evaluated out of an abundance of precaution," Wake County EMS Chief of Operations Seth Komansky explained.
Three students were taken to WakeMed North with minor injuries and nine were taken to WakeMed Pediatrics for minor injuries, plus one sibling to keep the children together.
Other children were transported from the school to WakeMed North after meeting with parents.
A Wake County Public School System spokesperson said the bus was headed to North Forest Pines Elementary School down Ponderosa Service Road when a car ran a stop sign, causing the collision. The North Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating.
Mendoza, of Knightdale, was charged with no operators license, stop sign violation, and expired registration.
