5 recovering after North Dakota school bus-train collision

LIDGERWOOD, N.D. – Five students were recovering from injuries Friday, a day after their school bus was struck by a train in North Dakota and overturned, according to the state Highway Patrol.

Eighteen students from Lidgerwood Public Schools were on the bus when it was hit by a slow-moving train while crossing two sets of Dakota Missouri Valley Western Railroad tracks about 3:40 p.m. Thursday.

The force of the collision in Lidgerwood caused the bus to rotate counter-clockwise and roll onto its side, according to the patrol.

Three injured students went to hospitals with injuries. They included an 8-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl who were taken by ambulance; a 15-year-old girl who was airlifted to a Fargo hospital, and a 10-year-old boy who was taken to a hospital by his parents. There was no update Friday on their conditions.

Two men, an engineer and a conductor, were on the train, the patrol said. They were not injured.

Road conditions were covered with snow and ice at the time.

Lidgerwood is a town of about 650 people about 70 miles (112.65 kilometres) south of Fargo.