At least 50 people were injured Saturday, many of them students, when six school buses traveling to Six Flags were involved in an accident on I-20 in Newton County, authorities said.
One bus driver who had to be cut from the wreckage was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright. The driver was identified as Angela Anthony, 44, of Midville.
Wright said 50 other people were checked at area hospitals after complaining of injuries. Two additional people were transported for visible injuries.
The students on the buses were from Burke County Middle School in Waynesboro, Wright said. They were headed to Six Flags, just west of Atlanta. Burke County borders the South Carolina state line.
The accident, which occurred just after noon near a construction zone, was south of Social Circle and east of Covington.
“At mile marker 98, just west of the Georgia Highway 11 exit, traffic began slowing for a lane closure about a half mile ahead,” Wright said. “As the buses slowed, one bus struck the rear of another, setting off a chain-reaction crash. The passenger car was the last vehicle in the line and struck the rear of the sixth bus.”
Amy Nunnally, a spokeswoman for the Burke County school system, said no child was seriously injured. "Just a few bruises, scrapes," Nunnally told The Associated Press. "Nothing bad happened to any of our children."
The injured bus driver was conscious and talking with emergency crews when she was cut from the wreckage, Nunnally said.
Emergency personnel from Newton and Morgan counties, the State Patrol and the cities of Covington and Social Circle responded, according to Newton sheriff's spokesman Lt. Tyrone Oliver.
Morgan County sent several buses to the scene to help transport uninjured children.
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