HAZARD, Ky. (AP) — A school bus crash in southeast Kentucky has injured 15 people after the driver swerved off the road to avoid hitting a deer.

Chief Deputy Tony Eversole of the Perry County Sheriff’s Office says the single-vehicle crash occurred around 9 a.m. Monday as the driver was traveling on Highway 28 near Gays Creek, about 106 miles southeast of Lexington. The driver swerved to miss a deer, went off the road and struck a tree. Had the tree not been there, Eversole says, the crash could have been “a lot worse.”

Eversole says the bus driver and 14 students were transported at a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The students were being taken from Buckhorn School to a vocational school when the crash occurred.

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