School bus flips off Century Drive; no serious injuries

Six Crook County High School students and their driver escaped serious injury Saturday morning when their school bus slid off Century Drive west of Bend and flipped twice down a steep embankment and coming to rest against the trees, Oregon State Police reported.

Members of the school’s cross-country ski team were headed for practice at Dutchman Flat when driver Russell Johnson, 55, of Prineville, lost control of the 14-passenger bus shortly before 10 a.m. at milepost 15.5 of the road between Bend and Mt. Bachelor, said OSP Lt. Josh Brooks and a trooper on the scene.

The westbound bus, which had been traveling at about 45 mph, slid through the oncoming lane of the road, which was snow-packed, and off the embankment, rolling over twice before coming to rest against trees about 50 feet off the road, Brooks said.

A Deschutes National Forest law enforcement officer spotted the skid marks turned around and spotted the bus, contacting 911, a trooper said.

Troopers, assisted by the U.S. Forest Service personnel, helped the teens and drivers get out of the bus and back to the road to be checked out and to wait in warm cars to leave the scene.

One student sustained a minor injury and was taken by ambulance to St. Charles Bend, Brooks said.

The student, a 16-year-old boy, had cuts on the back of his head, which went through a bus window, according to initial reports, which also indicated those aboard the small school bus were wearing seat belts.

Amy Lawrence Bishop said on the KTVZ Facebook page that her son was on the bus and thanked others for the prayers and well-wishes.

Bishop wrote that her son “is shaken up, neck is sore, but other than that he is fine,” adding that the crash “definitely bonded the team.”