6 killed in Ohio crash involving charter bus carrying students

Three students aboard a chartered bus and three chaperones in an accompanying passenger vehicle were killed Tuesday when a charter bus transporting students was involved in a five-vehicle crash on Interstate 70 outside Columbus, Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the bus that was struck from behind by a semi-tractor trailer truck on I-70 west about a half-mile before the Route 310 interchange in Etna.

The Tuscarawas Valley Local district in Zoarville, Ohio, said the bus was carrying students and chaperones to an Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus

Authorities identified the dead as: John W. Mosely, 18, of Mineral City; Jeffery D. Worrell, 18, of Bolivar; Katelyn N. Owens, 15 of Mineral City; Dave Kennat, 56, of Navarre; Kristy Gaynor, 39, of Zoar; and Shannon Wigfield, 45, Bolivar.

Mosely, Worrell, and Owens were passengers on the bus that was struck from behind by a semi, and Kennat, Gaynor and Wigfield were chaperones in a separate vehicle that was involved in the accident.

Police said said the crash involved five vehicles, and 18 people were transported from the bus. A total of 54 people were on the chartered bus.

Tuscarawas Valley Superintendent Derek Varansky said on Facebook that "a charter bus carrying Tusky Valley students and chaperones on the way to the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus was involved in a very serious accident."

The National Transportation Safety Board has announced that it has begun an investigation into the crash.

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