North Greene bus rolls on side after near head-on crash on U.S. 67

A North Greene school bus carrying students back from a field trip rolled onto its side on U.S. 67 near Carrollton after a southbound vehicle crossed the center line on a curve, leaving 11 students and one staff member injured and sending emergency crews into a long afternoon response that closed the highway for hours.

Illinois State Police said the bus was northbound just south of Northeast 400 Street when the oncoming vehicle drifted into its lane on Wednesday, April 29, at about 3:45 p.m. to 3:48 p.m. The bus driver steered to the right to avoid a direct collision, but the bus left the pavement, hit a ditch embankment and overturned on its side. Officials said the injuries were non-life-threatening, and all 12 people taken to a hospital were transported by ambulance.

The crash shut down all lanes of U.S. 67, a key north-south route for Morgan County and neighboring Greene County, forcing commuters, farm traffic and other travelers to detour while crews worked the scene. The highway did not reopen until about 8 p.m., turning a school transportation scare into a regional traffic disruption that stretched well beyond the immediate wreck site.

North Greene Community Unit School District 3, which enrolled 807 students in the 2024-25 school year, moved quickly to reassure families. Superintendent Jaclyn Kuchy said counselors and support staff would be available for students who needed help, and a letter to parents thanked staff and students for supporting one another at the scene. The district also canceled a mock DUI crash reenactment that had been planned for students at the Greene County fairgrounds, showing how one crash rippled into the day’s school safety programming.

A witness who spoke afterward praised the bus driver’s actions and credited first responders for their response, a detail that fit the larger picture left by state police: a quick evasive move likely kept the crash from becoming a direct head-on strike. For families in North Greene and nearby Morgan County communities, the incident combined the most unsettling parts of a school day, injured children, a rolled bus and a closed highway, all in one rush-hour stretch on U.S. 67.