UPDATE: School Bus Collision Injures Nine, Including Five Children

UPDATE - 12:15 p.m. - Police said a total of 55 children were on a school bus when it collided into a van Wednesday morning traveling south on Centennial Lane near Centennial Lane Elementary and Breconshire Road.

Police said five of the children were injured—two 6-year-old girls, a 7-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl—and transported to Howard County General Hospital. Two of the children have since been released, according to police.

Four adults—the driver and two passengers of the van as well as the driver of the school bus—were also injured and transported to Howard County General.

Police have cited the driver of the bus, Samuel Stokes Jr., 63, of Baltimore with failure to control speed to avoid a collision and negligent driving.

A preliminary investigation found that Stokes may have turned his head to address the children at the time of the collision, according to police.

ORIGINAL STORY

A school bus collision Wednesday morning on Centennial Lane left eight people injured after the bus collided with a van. The van then hit a passenger car.

Police said the bus was on its way to Centennial Elementary School around 8:30 a.m., traveling south on Centennial Lane, when it struck the van.

The driver and five children on the bus were transported to Howard County General Hospital with minor injuries, according to police. The driver and two passengers in the van were also transported to Howard County General with minor injuries, while the driver of the passenger car was uninjured.

The details of the crash are still under investigation by police, but no citations have been issued, said police.

Police have not yet released the names of the drivers involved, nor the ages of the children.