PHILADELPHIA _ A bus carrying Philadelphia schoolchildren on an eighth-grade class trip was involved in a serious accident on I-95 in Maryland on Monday.
Thirty people were injured when a Werner Coach charter bus carrying students and chaperones from the C.W. Henry School in West Mount Airy overturned in Harford County, Md., near Havre de Grace, about 9:30 a.m.
One adult and one child were airlifted to hospitals with critical injuries, according to the Susquehanna Hose Company, which is responsible for fire protection for the city of Havre de Grace, halfway between Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore.
A teacher was one of the critically injured, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said.
On board the bus were 26 children, two teachers, one parent chaperone, and one driver, the Maryland State Police said. Besides the two people airlifted to hospitals, the others were transported to three area hospitals with less serious injuries _ broken bones, head injuries, asthma attacks, cuts and scrapes, officials said.
There are "no fatalities at this time," state police officials said shortly before noon.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in this incident," Hite said at a news conference at Philadelphia School District headquarters.
Greg Shipley of Maryland State Police said the bus might have overturned "at least once, possibly twice" in the accident.
A preliminary investigation indicated that a car lost control when it was attempting to pass the bus. The car veered across multiple lanes of traffic, clipping the front of the bus.
The bus veered off the right side of the highway, smacked into an embankment and hit a tree before turning onto its left side, blocking the right two lanes of I-95 South.
At the same time as the crash, at least one bus full of Philadelphia Police officers was traveling on I-95 south toward Washington, D.C., for National Police Week, according to Officer Tanya Little, police spokeswoman. When the officers came upon the accident, Little said, they got off the bus to offer assistance at the scene, functioning as first responders.
Little said she did not know how many officers were on the bus, but said none were injured.
That the officers were so close to the Henry students was a coincidence; they were not traveling together.
Hite said that most but not all of the parents had been notified of the accident; district staff had not been able to reach some families.
Some of Hite's staff was already on the ground in Maryland at midday; others were headed down to hospitals in district buses.
The Henry school will serve as a reunification center once children return to Philadelphia, Hite said. The school will be open all night.
Mayor Jim Kenney, on hand at the district news conference, offered his best wishes to those involved.
"This is a very upsetting situation," Kenney said. "Let's get our kids back as soon as we can."
The soon-to-graduate eighth-graders were scheduled to visit the Newseum, the Martin Luther King Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. They left the school at 7:30 a.m.
Robin Roberts, parent of a sixth-grader at Henry, was shaken at the news. She said little information had gone out from the school, and parents were anxious and confused.
"I am just beside myself at this point," Roberts said.
Another parent at the school described the scene there as "chaos."
Roberts said she had just spoken with a parent whose child was injured in the crash. The boy, she said, had two broken legs and a dislocated shoulder.
"I just hope that's the worst of it," said Roberts.
The critically injured child was flown to Nemours duPont Hospital in Wilmington and the seriously injured teacher, a woman, was flown to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
A spokesman for the University of Maryland Health System said that about 15 patients were being treated at the University of Maryland Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace, and another 10 or so were being treated for more minor injuries at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air.
By late afternoon, 10 patients had been released from Harford Memorial, and the remaining seven were expected to be released by Monday evening. Officials said the bus driver, parent chaperone and teacher who was not critically injured had all been released.
Photos from the scene show the large Werner bus heavily damaged, as well as trees and a guardrail on the side of the highway.
State police investigators have consulted with the Harford County state's attorney's office on the crash. No charges have been filed, and the investigation is ongoing.
Werner Coach, based in Phoenixville, employs 39 drivers for its 27-vehicle fleet, according to federal records.
The company has seen increasing maintenance problems over the past two years with 61 violations found during 58 inspections. Werner's maintenance record has fared worse than 78 percent of similarly-sized bus companies, according to a review of federal safety records. Werner has reported two crashes during that span. Neither involved injuries nor fatalities but vehicles had to be towed away.
Werner was issued two violations last year for unsafe drivers, including a citation for the use of a hand-held mobile device while operating a coach. The company was also faulted in December for an employee exceeding the 10-hour driving limit. There were no reports of drivers operating buses under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Overall, the company is rated satisfactory by federal safety standards. Its employees drive 2 million miles yearly.
Werner, in a statement, said it was cooperating fully with police.
"Werner Coach wishes to express its sorrow and sympathy to those impacted by this accident," the statement said. "Werner places the safe transportation of all their passengers at the highest level."
At Henry, multiple police cars and other city vehicles were set up in front of the building on Carpenter Lane. Neighbors gathered in small clusters outside a nearby corner store, telling each other about the accident.
A Salvation Army truck pulled up to the school at mid-afternoon. District officials said the Red Cross was also on hand, as well as extra school counselors and school police.
The event transformed what would have been an ordinary school day, people inside the building said.
Henry students were "being really resilient," said one parent, who asked not to be identified because staff instructed families not to speak to the media. Staff members were going from classroom to classroom, making sure students were OK, paying special attention to children with siblings, cousins or close friends on the trip.
Many parents chose to pick their children up before the end of the school day.
Sylvia Dudley, 50, stood on the sidewalk on Sedgwick Street by the C.W. Henry school and burst into tears when she saw her son, Dimitri Reeves, 14, shuffle toward her.
Reeves is in the eighth grade at the school and didn't go on the trip, his mother said, because "he just didn't make a big deal out of it."
"Thank Jesus you didn't get on that bus," Dudley, 50, said as she embraced her son. "I'm so glad."
