Students Unharmed After School Bus Plows into House

iStock/Thinkstock(BLUE BELL, Pa.) — Police are investigating what caused a school bus loaded with kids to plow into a home in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Tuesday morning.

The students were uninjured and escaped with the bus driver from a rear emergency exit on the bus, which was bound for Saint Helena School, according to the Whitpain Township Police Department.

The students ranged in age from 5 to 12, said the school’s principal, Sister Cathe Shoulberg.

The 58-year-old male bus driver was taken to a nearby hospital to be evaluated, police said in a written statement that did not specify a reason for the hospital evaluation. The driver may have had a medical issue before the incident, ABC News station WPVI-TV reported.

“The bus driver looked absolutely lethargic, he was completely out of it,” a neighborhood resident, Craig Kalman, told WPVI-TV. “He said ‘I don’t remember, I don’t remember.'”

The driver is “loved by students and parents” and “they are very concerned about him,” Shoulberg said.

“Students said that he appeared fine this morning,” Shoulberg added.

One person was inside the house at the time of the crash, but the person was uninjured, police said. Later reports suggested additional people inside the house, but still no injuries, though police did not respond to requests for clarification.

“We were in that room five seconds before,” homeowner Jill Lafferty told WPVI-TV. “The force was so great that it pushed both of us on the floor, it sounded like an explosion. I thought there was a gas leak and something exploded downstairs.”

“I said a prayer and I said, ‘Thank you God that my kids were not in that room,'” Lafferty added. “I don’t know what could have happened. I don’t want to think about what ifs.”

Police received a report of a bus into a residence on Windermere Drive at 7:45 a.m. and continued to investigate the crash throughout the day. Police told ABC News they would be looking at video from a camera on the bus as part of the investigation and had interviewed students at the school.

Police said nine students were on the bus when it crashed, and Shoulberg said several others witnessed the accident from a bus stop. After arriving at school, Shoulberg added, the students were examined by the school nurse and deemed to be alright but shocked, and they were given soft pretzels at the principal’s office.

Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.