3 Teens Injured When Jeep Collides With School Bus In Mayes County

Three Green Country teens were flown to the hospital after the Jeep Grand Cherokee they were riding in collided with a school bus Wednesday afternoon.

It happened sometime after 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 28 and NS 437 Road, east of Adair.

Police said the bus driver had just made his final drop off on Highway 28 and was headed back to Adair High School when the collision happened.

We spoke with the driver's son, who recently graduated from Adair, and he said everyone's hearts and minds are with the three girls hit in the wreck.

A string of cars on Highway 28 lead Osage SkyNews 6 to the scene, where we observed several ambulances and at two medical helicopters.

Officers and troopers blocked off the road for more than an hour, as three young girls were flown to the hospital.

Adair police officer Glenn Parman said the bus was headed westbound on Highway 28, when a red Jeep with three girls in it headed in the other direction, turned in front of the bus.

"If it was in a blind curve or downhill you could kind of understand, but this is straight level ground," Parman said.

Adair Police officers arrived at the scene to find the school bus in the ditch and the Jeep with heavy damage to its front end.

"Our first thought: Is the bus full? We were glad to find out in was empty," Parman said. "Obviously, it's still a bad situation with the three juveniles being in critical."

Parman says all three girls were ejected from the vehicle.

Billy Whiteside not only knows the girls, but his father, Kevin, was the one driving the bus.

"The sun was coming in the window, that time of day. He says it happened so fast that he didn't have time to react," Whiteside said.

Police tell us driver Kevin Whiteside drove into the ditch to avoid hitting other traffic.

Whiteside's son said his father immediately ran out to check on the girls. While his father is physically okay, mentally, he said he's just as shake up as everyone else in the small community of Adair.

"I talked to my dad. He's fine, but my biggest concern is the girls and how they're doing," he said.

Police updated the conditions of the girls Wednesday night. They said one of the girls was still in serious condition and the other two were stable.