FD: Car Collides With Half Hollow Hills School Bus With 18 Kids On Board

A Lexus, right, crashed into a Half Hollow Hills school bus, left, this morning, according to Suffolk police. Photos by Steve Silverman

A car and a bus carrying 18 elementary school students collided this morning, fire officials said.

The bus, from Half Hollow Hills school district, was bound for Signal Hill Elementary School in Dix Hills, according to fire officials.

As the bus driver was attempting to make a left turn onto Rainer Street from New York Avenue in Melville at around 8:50 a.m., a person driving a Lexus attempted to go around the bus, but ended up colliding with it, Suffolk police said.

The students were between the ages of 7 and 8, Suffolk Police Assistant Commissioner Justin Meyers said in an emailed statement.

“Two of the students complained of pain and their parents picked them up at the scene,” Meyers added. The bus driver declined medical attention, according to fire officials.

All of the students who were on the bus reported to school after the accident, according to Anne Marie Marrone Caliendo, assistant superintendent for the Half Hollow Hills school district.

"All parents had been notified at the time of the accident," she added.

The Melville Fire Department responded to the accident with three rescue squad ambulances, an engine, paramedic unit and fire police under the direction of Assistant Chief David Kaplan.

-ANDREW WROBLEWSKI

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:45 p.m., Oct. 3 with
a comment from a Half Hollow Hills school district official.