Three students injured when SUV crashes into Evergreen schools bus in east Vancouver

Three students and a fourth person suffered minor injuries Wednesday morning when an SUV reportedly ran a red light and crashed into a school bus in east Vancouver.

The Vancouver fire and police departments and AMR responded at 9:10 a.m. to the crash at Northeast 28th Street and 119th Avenue.

The Evergreen Public Schools bus was traveling south on 119th Avenue and turning east onto 28th Street when the SUV ran a red light and struck the side of the bus. The SUV caught fire, and a witness extinguished it with a fire extinguisher, according to Vancouver police.

Of the four people injured, three were taken by ambulance to area hospitals for evaluation, including two students, according to police and school district officials. A third student’s parents drove them to the hospital, said Bryan Fredrickson, a Vancouver Fire spokesman.

The students evacuated the bus and took a different bus the remainder of the way to Cascade Middle School. Once there, administrators and counselors took them to the library, where nurses and paramedics evaluated them, district spokesman Craig Birnbach said.

District officials called and emailed students’ families about the incident.

“We are thankful to our bus driver who reacted quickly to get students off the bus as safely as possible,” Principal Allison Harding wrote in the message to families. “We also appreciate our first responders who came to our aid.”

The Vancouver Police Department’s traffic unit is investigating. Five Vancouver Fire units responded.