School bus crashes in Columbia

UPDATE – 7:15 A.M.: The driver of the school bus that crashed on Highway 63 early Monday morning is safe, according to Michelle Baumstark, the Columbia Public School District spokesperson.

The crash happened just after 6 a.m. on Highway 63 southbound just before the Grindstone Parkway exit.

Columbia police at the scene told ABC 17 News that the driver missed the exit and went off the road.

The driver told officers the road was darker than usual, likely because of Daylight Savings Time kicking off on Sunday morning.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973167468159078400″,”author_name”:”Kirstie Crawford”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Larger tow truck now at the scene of school bus crash on Hwy 63 SB near Grindstone exit. CPD partially blocking exit but cars still able to get through &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc17news?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#abc17news&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/9VTQjTpNVm”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/9VTQjTpNVm&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Kirstie Crawford (@KirstieABC17) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973167468159078400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 12, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Baumstark said a substitute bus will be filling in for the bus that crashed, allowing the routes to operate as usual.

No students were on the bus during the crash.

ORIGINAL: Emergency officials responded to Highway 63 near Grindstone Parkway in Columbia just after 6 a.m. Monday for a reported vehicle crash.

Crews arrived to find a school bus that had apparently traveled off the road and into the ditch.

There were no students on the bus at the time of the crash.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973162805124886528″,”author_name”:”Kirstie Crawford”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;School bus crash on Hwy 63 southbound before Grindstone exit. Use caution in area &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc17news?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#abc17news&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/fOMBqOukRB”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/fOMBqOukRB&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Kirstie Crawford (@KirstieABC17) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973162805124886528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 12, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

ABC 17 News crews on scene are working to find out more information about any injuries that may have occurred and what is believed to be the cause of the crash.

This article will be updated throughout the day with the latest information.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973165986655371264″,”author_name”:”Kirstie Crawford”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Firefighters have left the scene but CPD still here. Looks like they are trying to figure out how to tow this school bus out of the muddy ditch. Avoid Hwy 63 SB near Grindstone exit &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc17news?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#abc17news&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/4QTtKEOr1Q”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/4QTtKEOr1Q&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Kirstie Crawford (@KirstieABC17) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KirstieABC17/status/973165986655371264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 12, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}