School buses involved in two minor accidents
Slick road conditions from ice and snow were factors in at least two minor crashes involving school buses Wednesday morning in Columbia Falls and Kalispell.
No injuries were reported in either incident.
At 7:51 a.m. the Montana Highway Patrol received a report for a bus accident near Columbia Falls A school bus transporting Columbia Falls School District students was turning right onto Sawtooth Trail from Halfmoon Road when it took the corner too wide and grazed the front bumper of a Jeep Cherokee stopped at the intersection, according to Trooper Casey Graff. The bus was not damaged. The Jeep had minor damage to its bumper.
At 9:25 a.m., troopers responded to the scene of the Kalispell crash. A school bus transporting Glacier High School vocational agriculture students was stopped at an intersection preparing to turn north on U.S. 93 from Willow Glen Drive. A pickup traveling northbound was unable to stop when the traffic light turned red at the intersection and tried to swerve onto Willow Glen Road when it sideswiped the bus, according to Trooper Thomas Manz. Both the pickup and bus had some damage but were able to drive away. According to a message sent through the school district’s notification system, students were to return to Glacier on another bus.