3 People Killed and 15 Injured in Ohio Highway Crash

Three people were killed and 15 others were injured after a charter bus carrying students from a high school was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on a central Ohio highway on Tuesday morning, The Associated Press reported.

The crash took place on Interstate 70 near State Route 310 in Etna Township, outside of Columbus, on Tuesday morning, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The charter bus was taking students and chaperones from a school in eastern Ohio to the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus, according to Derek Varansky, superintendent of the Tuscarawas Valley Local School District.

“We understand from law enforcement that there may be multiple serious injuries and we are working to learn the details,” he wrote on the school district’s Facebook page.

Etna Township is a city with more than 18,000 residents in Licking County in the central part of the state.

The Licking County Emergency Management Agency urged drivers to avoid Interstate 70 in the area of State Route 310 and said that both directions were closed. The Ohio Department of Transportation said the closure could last hours.

Troopers, fire and emergency crews were working at the scene, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

Cameras from the Ohio Department of Transportation showed plumes of smoke over the scene.

The identities and conditions of the people injured were not yet clear, and it was not known what caused the accident.