School bus crash in Andover blocks Red Spring Road

ANDOVER, Mass. — An Andover High School bus crashed into a pole Thursday afternoon.

Seventeen students were on the bus that was pinned between a guard rail and utility pole.

No one was injured, according to Phillip Conrad, the school's principal. Only skid marks and a dented guard rail remained at the scene.

The bus had just pulled out from the high school carrying students when the driver headed down Red Spring Road, and then was side-swiped by a minivan, according to police.

The bus then turned sideways, blocking both lanes of traffic. It was caught between a guard rail and embankment, just shy of hitting a utility pole.

Red Spring Road in Andover was closed as the bus was turned sideways across the road.

Sky25 was over the scene, where another car appeared to have been involved in the crash. A dark-colored Honda minivan was stopped just up the road with skid marks leading toward it as well.

The second vehicle had deployed airbags.

Skid marks apparently left by the bus indicated it had dragged its back tires as it rotated across the road.

Parents breathed a sign of relief after learning that all of the students walked away from the scene without a scratch.

"I can’t believe no one was hurt just because, you know, it’s a bus. There’s no seat belts or if there are nobody uses them and it was slanted and it was wedged. It’s scary," one parent said.

The crash occurred at a time when Andover residents are still on edge after the Merrimack Valley gas explosions, fearing the worst when they see helicopters and hear sirens in their neighborhood.

"After the gas leak, your stomach drops. Oh, what now!" a resident said.

"I turned the corner and saw the bus and I was just amazed by how something like that could happen because it was crossed in both sides of traffic," the resident said.

Students say they won't blame their classmates if they need some time to recover.

"I could have been on the bus if I didn’t live here and if I was, I’d be traumatized right now," one student said.

Parents were called after the crash and students were offered alternative rides home.

Cox Media Group