Updated: Driver dead, children hurt in Rio Arriba County bus crash

Mesa Vista Consolidated Schools Superintendent Tracie Phillips said driver Pat Valdez, 69, was dead following the crash in which the bus left NM 111 and went down an embankment. One student on the bus suffered a broken hip and another a fractured jaw.

Phillips said Valdez was a contract driver for the district. He was in business with his wife. His brother, Victor Valdez, said at the scene that the couple had five children.

“Obviously this is a terrible tragedy,” Phillips said. “… Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”

All nine students on board were transported to the hospital in Española, Phillips said, but most of these were for observation. The student with the broken hip may have been taken to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

The students on board were between 7 and 16 years old, Phillips said. The bus was coming from the Vallecitos area in northern Rio Arriba County.

Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s spokesman Jake Arnold said State Police would handle the investigation.

Arnold said deputies responded to the area around 7:30 a.m. He was not sure how close to the actual crash time that was because the area has spotty cell phone service.

Arnold said Valdez may have suffered a heart attack or another “medical event” and an autopsy from the Office of the Medical Investigator would be sought to confirm that.

“We cannot tell if his death is specifically from the medical incident that then led to the accident or whether (he died from) injuries from the accident or both,” Arnold said.

Arnold said state law requires such school bus incidents to be investigated by a certified accident reconstructionist. He said the Sheriff’s Office has these but State Police had a reconstructionist on hand soon after the crash, so the investigation was turned over to that agency.

State Police have not returned any calls this morning seeking information on the crash. An agency spokesman and Police Chief Robert Shilling did not respond to telephone calls from a reporter. Staff at the agency’s Española office said administrators there were not in on Monday and were not available to comment.

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VALLECITOS (AP) — Authorities in New Mexico say a Mesa Vista school bus driver was killed and at least nine children were hurt when a bus rolled over on the way to school.

State police say the bus rolled over Monday morning near Vallecitos in northern New Mexico.  KOB-TV reports that nine students from Ojo Caliente Elementary were injured, six of them seriously. It was unclear if there were any other injuries or what caused the rollover.

The Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Department and state police are at the scene north of Espanola.

No further information was available.