2nd Johnston County school bus crash in 4 days sends 9 children to hospital

Nine students were injured in a school bus crash in Johnston County on Monday morning.

WRAL News was told that 24 students were on board, ages 5 to 11. Two students were taken to WakeMed for femur fractures and facial lacerations. The seven other students were taken to a hospital in Smithfield.

The bus was taking students to Princeton Elementary School. The uninjured students went to school for parents to pick them up.

The crash happened on Stevens Chapel Road. The bus was the only vehicle involved in the crash, according to reports.

Photos from the scene show EMS has arrived, and the back of the bus appears to have been partially torn away.

Authorities said the bus was traveling north when it came around the curve, ran off the road, overcorrected on the center line and hit a mailbox and tree.

The school bus driver, Karin Allis Hauver, 52, was charged with a left-of-center violation. Impairment, speed or drugs is not a factor, authorities said. Inattention was a factor.

"In the 10 years we've lived here that's the third crash we've had from to an overcorrection," said Thomas Goffe, who lives nearby. "Two vehicles rolled over in the neighbors front yard across the street on the same day. Often enough, a lot of people go way too fast through here."

The speed limit is 45 mph on that stretch of road.

Monday's crash came days after a separate Johnston County school bus coming from Four Oaks Middle School was involved in a crash. In that crash, a driver in a Nissan Altima was heading north on Crocker Lane and tried to turn left onto Webb Mill Road. The driver didn't yield correctly and hit a school bus going east on Webb Mill Road.