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Mont. school bus crash kills 2 drivers, injures 4 children

Two buses carrying other children were ahead of the smaller bus that was struck

Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — A school bus taking students on a field trip in northeastern Montana collided head-on Tuesday with a pickup truck in a crash that killed the drivers of both vehicles, authorities said.

The collision also injured four eighth-graders along with an adult field trip chaperone, said Superintendent Bob Connors of Glasgow Public Schools.

The collision happened about 6:40 a.m. about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Glasgow as the students headed to Havre on the field trip involving state history.

Two buses carrying other children were ahead of the smaller bus that was struck, and the other drivers were unaware of the crash, school officials said.

Valley County Sheriff Vernon Buerkle told The Billings Gazette the victims were bus driver Harold “Jim” Belcher, 73, of Fort Peck, and Julie Ann Steiger, 31, of Troy.

The injured were taken to a hospital in Glasgow. Connors said their injuries were not life-threatening, but one student was flown to a Billings hospital for treatment.

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