Updated 4:58 pm 12/12/17
Authorities have identified the student and bus driver who died after a school bus caught fire in western Iowa.
The fire happened around 7 a.m. Tuesday at a farm southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles east of Omaha.
The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says the bus driver was 74-year-old Donnie Hendricks of Carson, Iowa.
The student who died was 16-year-old Megan Klindt.
The bus had just picked up Klindt at the farm before it backed across the road and into a ditch.
Investigators say the bus was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived.
Klindt and Hendricks were the only people on the bus at the time of the fire.
The Riverside Community School District brought in grief counselors to help students and staff cope with the tragedy.
The school district has around 700 students and held classes Tuesday.
The district postponed basketball games scheduled for Tuesday evening.
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Authorities say a fire aboard a western Iowa school bus has killed a student and the bus driver.
Investigators say no one else was on the bus when the fire erupted around 7 a.m. Tuesday southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles east of Omaha.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Lt. Rob Ambrose says the remains of the driver and a student were found after the fire was extinguished.
The ages and names of the victims weren’t immediately released.
The bus caught fire after it backed out of a farm driveway and into a ditch across the road.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The bus was from the Riverside Community School District.
AP
