UPDATED: Student, driver injured in Riverton school bus collision

Dec. 3--RIVERTON, Kan. -- A Riverton school bus carrying 13 students was hit by another vehicle Tuesday morning while it was stopped on a highway picking up a student, according to Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves and the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The crash occurred shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday on U.S. Highway 166, 0.2 miles west of Kansas Highway 26 and three miles east of Baxter Springs, in Cherokee County. A westbound vehicle driven by Danra K. Green, 43, of Quapaw, Oklahoma, rear-ended a stopped Riverton bus, according to a report from the highway patrol.

"Her car sustained significant front-end damage," Groves said. "The troopers did an onsite inspection where it sustained damage to the rear end of the bus, but they were able to drive it away."

A 13-year-old male student on board the bus and the driver of the vehicle were both taken to Mercy Hospital in Joplin with injuries, according to the highway patrol.

Todd Berry, Riverton superintendent, said in an email to the Globe on Tuesday afternoon that the student was released from the hospital.

"It is reported that there are no serious injuries, but that the child is quite sore," he said.

The school district sent another bus to take the remaining 12 students, who range in age from 6 to 14, to school.

"We do not yet have an estimate on what it will take to repair the damage to the school bus," Berry said. "We are working with the insurance company and will know more in the next few days."

The Kansas Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into the crash.

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