Two killed when school bus and pickup crash head-on in NW Indiana

Two passengers in a pickup were killed when the truck slammed head-on into a school bus Tuesday morning in southern Porter County in northwest Indiana.

The accident happened at 11:18 a.m. on State Route 8 near Baums Bridge Road in unincorporated Pleasant Townhip, just west of Kouts, according to the Porter County sheriff’s office.

Responding officers found a head-on crash involving a Hebron High School bus and the pickup, a statement from police said. Both the driver and passenger in the 1995 Dodge Ram pickup were dead on the scene, police said.

The bus, a 2008 Thomas Freightliner, was eastbound on SR 8 when the westbound pickup crossed the center line and struck the larger vehicle head-on, police said.

The bus driver, a 52 year Hebron woman; and two passengers, 17- and 18-year-old Hebron High School students, were taken to Porter Regional Hospital in Valparaiso with minor injuries, police said.

The bus was from the Metropolitan School District of Boone Township (Hebron High), police said.

The victims have not yet been identified and their names will not be released until family is notified, police said.