1 dead, 10 hurt when Miss. school bus, semi crash

A 10-year-old girl was killed and at least 10 people were injured Friday in the crash of a school bus and a tractor trailer on a rural Mississippi highway, authorities said.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Jon Kalahar confirmed the student died in the accident about 7:20 a.m. Friday. He said at least 10 people were hurt, but it wasn't immediately clear if those were all students.

It was the second fatal school bus accident involving a tractor trailer in Mississippi this year.

Murry Roark, Bolivar County's deputy coroner, said the student who died was a 10-year-old girl. He did not release her name.

The accident happened at the intersection of Mississippi Highway 450 and U.S. Highway 61 in Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta region.

A woman who answered the phone at the Shaw School District declined to give her name but confirmed that it was one of their buses. She said district officials were on the scene and not immediately available for comment. She said the bus was carrying students ranging from kindergarten through high school.

The Bolivar Commercial newspaper had pictures that showed the vehicles flipped over and landed on their sides.

In February, a truck driver, a bus driver and a teacher were killed when a semi sideswiped one school bus, then collided head-on with a second one on Mississippi Highway 8. One of those buses ended up hanging partially over the edge of an interstate bridge.

At least 17 Ackerman High School students were injured in the Feb. 8 crash. They were coming home from a senior trip to the University of Mississippi at Oxford.

Killed were trucker Gary T. Bailey, 54, of Mantachie; the driver of the second bus, Steven B. Moss, 37; and Ackerman high teacher Phyllis Graham, 53, of Eupora, highway patrol troopers said.