2 die, up to 50 injured after school buses and tractor-trailer collide near St. Louis

2 die, 50 hurt in school bus crash near St. Louis

GRAY SUMMIT, Mo. — Two school buses packed with children crashed into a tractor-trailer near St. Louis Thursday, leaving two dead and at least 50 people injured, officials said.

Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Jorma Duran could not immediately say whether the two dead in the Interstate 44 crash near Gray Summit, 32 miles west of St. Louis, were riders on the school buses.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Department officials said up to 50 people were injured in the collision, broadcasters KMOX and KMOV reported.

The buses were carrying eighth-grade St. James band students to the Six Flags amusement park roughly 10 miles from the crash scene.

Footage of the scene showed metal ladders leaning into the windows of the crumpled yellow buses on the side of the highway as emergency crews surrounded the scene. One of the buses mounted the tractor-trailer in the force of the collision.

Details about the injuries were not immediately known.