A crash between a Fairfax County school bus and a Volkswagen Jetta in Annandale sent 16 students and two others to the hospital Thursday morning, authorities said.
All of the injuries from the 8:20 a.m. crash on Backlick Road and Falcon Street were considered non-life-threatening, according to Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Dan Schmidt. The injured included the bus driver and an occupant of the car, he said.
The bus was traveling to Poe Middle School, which serves 1,154 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, according to public schools spokesman Paul Regnier. The bus contained about 65 students at the time of the crash, Schmidt said.
Police spokesman Officer Eddy Azcarate declined to release details of the crash pending an investigation.
The car, he said, was struck by the bus on the driver’s side, though he would not speculate on who was at fault or whether charges would be filed. Regnier said all students who weren’t injured were picked up and taken on another bus to the school, where they were asked to call their parents. School staff also notified the parents of the injured children, he said.
