SUV crashes into St. Mary's bus - News - MailTribune.com - Medford, OR

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SUV crashes into St. Mary's bus A 92-year-old woman was taken to the hospital Sunday after her SUV crashed into a St. Mary's School bus. [St. Mary's School] Sunday Jul 23, 2017 at 1:00 PM Jul 23, 2017 at 5:06 PM Damian Mann Mail Tribune @reporterdm A 92-year-old Jacksonville woman was rushed to the hospital this morning after her Mercedes SUV collided with a bus carrying students from China and staff from St. Mary's School on South Stage Road, according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. The driver of the SUV, Eva Hogan, suffered minor injuries. The 32 exchange students as well as two staff members and driver of the bus weren't injured. "She had a couple of bumps and bruises," sheriff Sgt. Julie Denney said. "She was transported to the hospital mostly because of her age." According to sheriff deputies, Hogan, who was traveling southeast from Jacksonville, was cited for making a dangerous left turn onto Bellinger Road from South Stage Road, hitting the bus in the front as it was traveling northwest on South Stage. (Corrected from an earlier version.) One lane of South Stage was closed for three hours, and the bus was traveling toward Jacksonville. "The biggest issue is we had to wait quite some time to get the appropriate vehicles to tow the bus and get the children," Denney said. She said the sheriff doesn't make any determination whether the elderly woman is able to continue driving. "That's up to the DMV," Denney said. "We have people who are not 92 who get into crashes there." St. Mary's Head of Schools Frank Phillips said a second bus was sent out to pick up the students, who are here on a 12-day visit and were on there way to Sanctuary One for a field trip. "Everybody was OK, and they continued on with their field trip," he said. The bus will be out of commission for several weeks for repairs after the front end was damaged. The collision was worse on the Mercedes, which had extensive damage to the front end, based on a photo taken at the scene by a St. Mary's staff member. The students, mostly in 10th and 11th grades, are from a satellite campus of St. Mary's, Zhongnan Dongzhou International School in Haimen City in the Jiangsu Provence along the north bank of the Yangtze River next to the East China Sea. Phillips said the students return to China on Thursday. — Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on www.twitter.com/reporterdm.