SILVA, N.C. — A school bus carrying several dozen male students from Georgia Military Prep School in Milledgeville on an overnight field trip to the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina was hit by a train near the noon hour on Tuesday, school officials say.

Fortunately, none of the students nor two of the faculty members accompanying the students were seriously injured, according to Dr. Jeannie Zipperer, who serves as director of staff at GMC.

A total of six boys, all ninth-graders at GMC Prep School, as well as the two school faculty members were taken by ambulances to two area hospitals where they were treated and later released, Zipperer told The Union-Recorder during a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview. The injured students later joined other uninjured students, as well as female ninth grade students to enjoy various activities and whitewater rafting, Zipperer said.

The bus involved in the collision carried all the male students, while a second bus carried all the female students.

Zipperer said the field trip involved about 85 total students.

The school official said students’ parents were notified soon after the mishap, which was investigated by troopers with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

As of press time Tuesday, no other information had

been released by the state patrol.

Zipperer said as soon as she learned that all students were accounted for and they were safe, she immediately began the task of assuring that all parents were contacted and informed of what had taken

place.

“We identified all the students involved and then called all the parents immediately,” Zipperer said.

Shortly thereafter, faculty and staff members at GMC also were informed of the wreck, she said.

“They had reached their destination,” Zipperer said, noting the bus involved in the collision with the train was about to make its turn to go to the park. “The train was going slow, so it wasn’t some huge collision. It wasn’t like it was a speeding train.”

The bus involved was one of two large school buses involved in transporting both boys and girls to the park.

A locomotive hit the passenger side of the bus as it was crossing the railroad tracks.

GMC Prep Associate Principal Dr. Steve Greer, as well as other faculty and staff members went to the area hospitals where the injured were taken following the mishap.

Zipperer said as more information was learned about the wreck that those details would be made public.