3 injured, school bus damaged in Penns Valley pileup. What to know
Three people, including a 10-year-old girl riding on a Penns Valley school bus, were injured Thursday when police said a teenage driver caused a four-car pileup on a highway in Potter Township.
A 17-year-old girl from Gregg Township rear-ended a Jeep Renegade about 3:08 p.m. Thursday while traveling eastbound on state Route 45 near its intersection with Luse Road, state police at Rockview said in a crash report.
The driver of the Jeep, a 63-year-old man from Penn Township, was pushed into the school bus, police wrote. He was transported by Pleasant Gap EMS to Mount Nittany Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.
Five children — three girls and two boys between the ages of 8 and 10 — were on the bus. Four were not injured. One was transported by Centre LifeLink EMS to Mount Nittany for treatment of minor injuries, police said. The bus driver, a 76-year-old man from Centre Hall, was not injured.
The teen driver continued eastbound before crashing into a 2022 Ford Edge. The 72-year-old male driver and woman passenger were uninjured.
The teen was transported by Pleasant Gap EMS to Mount Nittany for treatment of minor injuries. Police said she would be cited for following too closely.
The Jeep and a Volvo driven by the teen were towed from the scene, police said. A message left with the Penns Valley Area School District was not returned.
The crash snarled traffic around the area, and PennDOT implemented a lane restriction that lasted just under three hours and was cleared before 5 p.m. Centre Hall Fire Company was first to respond to the crash.
In the past 10 years, there were 14 crashes involving a school bus in Centre County, according to state Department of Transportation statistics. Injuries were reported in half of those crashes.
CDT photojournalist Abby Drey contributed to this report
This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 4:54 PM.
