SALEM, Wis., May 24 (UPI) -- Investigators in Wisconsin say that a truck driver may have been distracted by choking on soda when he hit the back of a school bus.
A total of 16 people, 14 of them children, were injured in the crash Friday afternoon, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Four were seriously hurt, including the trucker.
The bus driver had stopped to let children off in Salem when the bus was hit in the rear.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said that the truck driver was questioned at the hospital.
"He may have been occupied inside the cab drinking a soda," Beth said. "He was either coughing or choking on it."
A boy getting off the bus was ejected and thrown onto the pavement. He and another child were airlifted to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee.
"As rescue people came, they found children scattered all over the grass. Some of the children were bounced around pretty handily," Beth said.
