5 youth injured in North Callaway bus crash in Audrain County
Jazsmin Halliburton
AUDRAIN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Five children and an adult were injured in a crash that involved a North Callaway School District bus on Thursday morning, a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report shows.
All five children are from Kingdom City and range from ages 9-17. The report says they suffered moderate injuries and were brought to University Hospital by ambulance. MSHP previously said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
The injured children included a 9-year-old boy, 11-year-old girl, 15-year-old boy and two 17-year-old girls, according to the report.
The report says the crash occurred near the intersection of Audrain County Road 845 and County Road 852. A 2010 Ford F-150 – driven by a 21-year-old man from Montgomery City – was heading northbound when it slid and hit the school bus, the report says. The Ford stopped in the roadway, while the bus slid and overturned and stopped on its side.
The driver of the Ford also had moderate injuries and was brought to University Hospital by ambulance, the report says. MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.
The bus was carrying eight students at the time of the crash.
Witness describes scene
Donna Kessler, a North Callaway resident, told ABC 17 News she was waiting with her granddaughter for her school bus to the Community R-6 school district and saw the crash.
“Saw her bus coming and I turned around and looked at her and said your bus is coming and about that time we saw this other bus, which we normally see, coming up 852 and this other guy coming down 845 from the South and he didn’t stop,” Kessler said.
🚨Audrain County School Bus Crash🚨
Troopers are investigating a crash involving a school bus, with eight students on it, and a truck near the intersection of Audrain Road 853 & Audrain Road 845.
Thankfully, none of the injuries are considered life-threatening injuries. pic.twitter.com/7zJwSk6eYH
— MSHP Troop F (@MSHPTrooperF) October 2, 2025
North Callaway School District Superintendent Kenya Thompson told ABC 17 News the bus serviced Williamsburg Elementary School, the middle school and the high school. The district owns its own buses, and Thompson said she was waiting on the crash investigation from law enforcement to learn how the crash happened.
Kessler said after the bus rolled she got her granddaughter onto her bus and went to help.
“Kids were scared, they wanted their moms, they wanted to call,” Kessler said. “There were complaints of things like their back, their neck, their knees but no, I didn’t see any bleeding, which is amazing.”
“There were no life-threatening injuries,” Thompson said in a news release. “Injured students are being treated and transported to the University of Missouri Hospital as needed. The parents of those students have been contacted. The remaining students, cleared by emergency services, have been released to their parents.”
In Missouri, sealt belts are not required on school buses. According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education School, buses are equipped with a passive restraint system called compartmentalization. DESE says the seating area of a school bus is built with specially padded high-back, wider, thicker seats that protect students in school buses during accidents. No metal surfaces are exposed and seats are spaced close together to contain the students in cushioned compartments.
“One of the girls even remarked now I understand why they tell us not to fall asleep on the bus. Apparently she was laying down in the seat,” Kessler said.
Kessler said it didn’t take long for first responders to arrive to the scene because of a local school resource officer in the area.
“The school resource officer from R-6 was driving in the area and he came by thinking maybe it was his daughter’s boss and it wasn’t,” Kessler said. “Once I called it in it took them a few minutes.”
Kessler said she doesn’t see many incidents happen on the road, but people still need to be cautious due to there being no stop sign at the four way intersection.
“There really ought to be a stop sign down there because 852, which runs between A and JJ, that’s a frequently used road to get from one side to the other,” Kessler said.
Thompson also thanked first responders from both Audrain and Callaway counties for their help at the crash.
MSHP Sgt. Kyle Green said the road was temporarily closed as tow trucks worked the scene.
Kessler said she witnessed the accident shortly after 7 a.m. and didn’t return home from the crash scene until around 9 a.m.