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School bus, car collide
Students escape injury in rush-hour wreck
School Bus vs Car 1 es
Juanita Machinea, left, talks to Denise Machinea, who comforts her daughter Alexis Medina, 12, after a car struck a school bus Friday afternoon on Atlanta Highway near Cumming. To the right, Danielle Crescenzo, 12, gets a hug from her mother, Tammy Crescenzo. The girls, both of whom attend Piney Grove Middle School, were riding the bus home at the time of the wreck. - photo by Emily Saunders

A woman was injured and some 30 children shaken when a vehicle and school bus collided during rush hour Friday afternoon on one of Forsyth County's busiest thoroughfares.

The woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to North Fulton Hospital for what appeared to be a compound fracture, authorities said. Her condition could not be determined.

Neither the bus driver nor any of 35 children on the bus, all students from Piney Grove Middle School, were injured in the wreck, school officials said.

Forsyth County Sheriff's Deputies Alex Tutterow and Matt Hester said the incident happened about 5 p.m., during rush hour traffic.

Tutterow said the car was traveling south on Atlanta Highway when it collided with the bus, which was turning left onto Lexington Lane. The intersection is just outside the Cumming city limits.

It is not clear which driver was at fault. "We're still investigating," Tutterow said.

Shortly after the collision, school system spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciolo said another bus was on its way to "unload the children and continue transporting them home."

The children had been released about 4:15 p.m, she said.

Cars and trucks lined both sides of Atlanta Highway as anxious parents hurried to pick up their children.

Tammy Crescenzo held daughter Danielle close to calm her.

Crescenzo said the 12-year-old's anxiety was partly because of her experience in a previous wreck.

"It was last year, but she's really shaken up," Crescenzo said. "She used a friend's cell phone on the bus to call me."

Crescenzo said she had received several calls from her friends about the wreck.

Danielle Crescenzo's friend, Alexis Medina, also was on edge. Her mother came to pick her up.

"I was sitting down then we just crashed and the woman hit us," Medina said.

Staff writer Jennifer Sami contributed to this report.