Two Killed in Major Missouri Auto Accident Involving School Buses

Grays Summit, MOA Missouri auto accident involving a tractor trailer, a pickup truck and two school buses full of high school band members has left two people dead and dozens of others injured.

The John F. Hodge High School band was on its annual summer trip to Six Flags when disaster struck, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Details of the accident remain unclear but according to the company that owns the tractor trailer, the truck was slowing down on Interstate 44 because of congestion when the pickup slammed into it from behind. The lead bus then hit the pickup and was then struck by the second bus.

According to Jeff Wilson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, a girl in the rear of the first bus and the driver of the pickup were both killed in the accident. More than 40 others were taken to the hospital and treated, mostly for minor injuries.

Wilson also said that the driver of the first bus said that she had switched lanes to avoid a stopped vehicle in the right-hand shoulder lane but was unable to stop in time once she realized the pickup had struck the tractor trailer.