Two buses carrying Yolo Middle School sixth-grade students and chaperons collided Thursday morning while the group was on a field trip in Yosemite National Park.

Twelve students and one chaperon were taken to area hospitals and medical centers with injuries that ranged from back or neck pain to bumps and bruises.

None of the injuries were serious.

Initial reports had indicated that as many as 40 passengers were injured.

According to school officials, four students were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Merced, two were taken to a Mariposa hospital and six were treated at a medical clinic in Yosemite Valley.

The students were cleared for release late in the day.

One chaperon was reportedly taken to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.

Superintendent Rick Fauss said all the injuries were considered minor to moderate.

In the wake of the crash, school district administrators fanned out to the hospitals receiving injured passengers to be with the students and chaperons.

Automated telephone messages went out to parents of students on the field trip shortly after the accident, and parents of the injured were notified by telephone as quickly as the school learned from those at the scene who was hurt.

The accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. on a downhill grade near the intersection of highways 140 and 120, when one of the buses rear-ended the other.

The buses are owned and operated by First Student Bus Company (formerly Laidlaw), which contracts to provide student transportation services to the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District.

Two more buses were dispatched to pick up the group, which included 81 students and 18 chaperons. They were expected to arrive back in Newman at 7:30 to 8 p.m.

The group had been scheduled to go hiking in Yosemite.

Look for a complete report in the next issue of the West Side Index.