More Than 20 Ballet Students Hospitalized After Downtown Pittsburgh Bus Crash

When the call came in and the number of injured continued to climb, first responders knew they would need additional help.

Two school buses transporting ballet students from all across the country collided Sunday evening at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Grant Street downtown.

Paramedics transported 28 people in their teens and early twenties to all six area hospitals as a precaution.

"The bus in front of us stopped really quickly and our driver didn't have time to break, so we hit the back of them," one of the girls told KDKA's Kym Gable.

"We instituted a mass casualty incident, which brought in several additional ambulances from outside the city for a total of nine medic units that helped us during this event," Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said.

There were a total of 3 buses carrying ballet students from a Summer Intensive Program at Chatham University. They were on their way to the Gateway Clipper for a field trip after training.

Samantha Condo was not one of the girls transported.

"About half of us from this bus were taken outside onto an ambulance for different reasons, so we're about 50 percent of the original people from this bus," Condo told Kym Gable at the scene.

Another girl added, "The [people on the] back of the first bus got pretty hurt."

All of the injuries were minor in nature according to officials on the scene. The cause is under investigation.