An allegedly stoned driver rear-ended a school bus Tuesday morning, leading officials to send eight King/Robinson Interdistrict Magnet School students to be examined at the hospital.
They were sent as a “precaution,” according to schools spokeswoman Abbe Smith.
The collision occurred at 9:03 a.m. at Orchard Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The school’s assistant principal, George Flanagan, arrived at the scene and then accompanied the students to Yale-new Haven Hospital. Principal Nadine Gannon notified parents.
The students, who range in age from 6 to 14 years old, did not have “evident” injuries, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman.
The driver of the car, a 31-year-old woman from Scranton Street, was driving south on Orchard when she hit the rear of the school bus, which was turning left from Orchard onto MLK, Hartman reported. The woman “then veered off and struck a utility pole.” She later told the cops “she’d recently smoked marijuana and had taken at least four prescription medications before getting behind the wheel.” Police charged her with “eight counts of risk of injury to a minor and operating with a suspended license.” The crash left the bus with “a bent bumper and rear passenger-side panel,” according to Hartman.
