School bus crash sends 13 to hospital with minor injuries

CTV Ottawa: Early morning school bus crash CTV's Eric Longley on the crash between a bus and SUV, kids sent to hospital as a precaution.

Several parents in Ottawa are breathing a sigh of relief after finding out their children were in a school bus crash.

Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning an Ottawa school bus collided with an SUV at the corner of Walkley Road and Thorndale Drive. The drivers were uninjured. There were 23 students on the bus heading to nearby Holy Cross School. 13 of those students were sent to the Emergency Department at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for further assessment. Their injuries were mostly minor bumps and bruises and they were quickly released. Still, the initial phone call to parents made for some anxious moments.

"It took 20 years off my life. Big time scary. And I actually heard the ambulance and the crash and everything. I felt it. And I knew it was his bus. And then I got the phone call," said Madeline Calvano, picking up her son Matteo.

Juan Callejas got the call at work that his son, Jose, was involved in the crash. "The first thing that came into my mind was is he okay? Or what happened? I don't know. You know? That's really scary," he says.

This is the second time in two days there has been a school bus crash in the National Capital Region. On Monday morning a school bus crashed into a hydro pole on Rue Georges in Buckingham in east Gatineau. Police say the driver was momentarily distracted while trying to calm students down. There were 20 students on board. 3 suffered minor injuries.