SUMMIT TWP — To some, it seems that school bus accidents have been more common lately, especially after a bus ended up on an embankment off Bonniebrook Road on Wednesday morning.

However, Butler School District Superintendent Dale Lumley and Valley Lines operations manager Bill Wehr do not think there have been any more than usual.

“I personally haven’t seen a significant increase in the number of accidents but obviously one of this magnitude (that happened Wednesday) is serious for us,” Lumley said, citing this as the first significant accident of the year.

Another incident in the Butler School District happened Sept. 6, when students were evacuated from a bus after police thought it had hit a utility pole while turning.

In Wednesday’s accident, four children and the bus driver were taken to Butler Memorial Hospital with injuries after the bus crashed on Bonniebrook Road.

According to state police, the Valley Lines bus was traveling south around 9:18 a.m. when it crossed the northbound lane, struck an oncoming pickup truck pulling a trailer and then continued northbound over a guard rail and onto an embankment.

The bus driver, Ted Codispot, reported hearing a loud bang before the crash, according to Wehr.

The bus, number 204, was carrying 20 children to Summit Township Elementary School, according to Lumley.

Other than the four children taken to the hospital, four children were picked up by parents who arrived on the scene.

The other 12 children were taken by another bus to Summit to be checked by the school nurse. Of those 12, eight stayed for the remainder of the day, Lumley said.

Lumley, who also responded to the scene, said the children, although shaken up, handled the accident well.

“They all seemed to be pretty settled,” he said. “Obviously, they were pretty upset but they all reacted well. They were all safe and calm.”

State police, Butler County Emergency Management officials and Valley Lines representatives, along with local volunteers also reported to the scene.

Police said the cause of the accident remains under investigation.

A trooper said he spoke to Codispot before he was taken to the hospital. Codispot blamed the crash on a “possible vehicle malfunction,” the troopers said. He would not elaborate.

Wehr said the loud bang Codispot reported hearing may have been a blown tire or another mechanical issue.

The other driver, Troy Slater, 51, of Jefferson Township, was not injured. The Dodge Ram 2500 truck, however, was damaged when the bus hit it before continuing into the guardrail.

Slater, who runs a part-time driveway paving business, was on his way to a job in Center Township.

He was traveling north when the bus pulled out from Portman Road onto Bonniebrook Road, headed in the opposite direction.

Moments later, the bus gradually drifted into Slater’s lane. He moved over to the far right side of his lane, attempting to avoid the bus, and hit the guardrail.

“It looked like he was reaching over,” Slater said of the bus driver, possibly indicating Codispot was laboring to turn the bus away from the pickup.

Codispot had both hands on the steering wheel, Slater said.

The bus clipped the driver’s side of the truck and trailer, smashing the pickup’s side mirror. The truck’s front driver’s side tire and both left side trailer tires were flattened in the crash.

The bus continued a short way down the road, into the guardrail and onto the embankment. Slater said that when he got out of his truck and walked down toward the wrecked bus he could hear “maybe four or five kids crying.”

Jeff Lyons of Harrisville, an Armstrong Utilities employee, was at work in a company truck when he and a co-worker came upon the crash.

“We saw the tail end of it,” he said.

The two workers rushed to help. They both also heard children crying.

“They were shook up,” Lyons said.

Most of the injured appeared to have cuts, and Codispot was complaining of pain on his side.

Wehr said he saw no reason why Codispot would not be able to return to work, if he’s physically able, pending the results of the investigation.

Slater said he was relieved none of the injuries appeared serious. And about that paving job?

“It looks like I’m not going to make it today,” he said.