Seven campers critically injured in bus crash near Boise

A school bus carrying about 30 campers rolled over on a winding highway north of Boise on Friday, leaving seven of the passengers critically injured, according to police.

State troopers and emergency units from multiple counties responded to reports of a crash about 3 p.m. Friday near Banks, about 55 miles from Boise, police said in a statement.

Eleven passengers were injured .

Aaron Snell, a spokesperson for the Idaho State Police, said the cause of the crash remained under investigation.

All of the children on the bus were transported by air or ground ambulances to hospitals out of “an abundance of caution,” officials said.

The children, who were between 13 and 18 years old, were returning from a popular weeklong overnight summer camp program run by Treasure Valley YMCA.

David Duro, president and CEO of Treasure Valley YMCA, said in an interview Saturday that he could not share individual details about the status of the campers, as they were minors.

But many of the children taken to hospitals had been discharged, Duro said.

“We have children with broken bones and some things like that,” Duro said.

“We’re really praying for more good news as we go,” he added.

Some patients were brought to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, said Mark Snider, a spokesperson for the hospital. St. Luke’s Health System treated patients at hospitals in Boise and Meridian, the Associated Press reported.

Saint Alphonsus, which treated the children ages 14 and older, received seven patients with injuries that were not life-threatening, Snider said. The hospital discharged five children Friday but admitted two patients, he said. Their conditions were not available.

The bus involved in the single-vehicle crash was one of four used for the summer camp program.

The state highway was closed Friday as the crash blocked all of the lanes, the Idaho Transportation Department said.

Another bus was delayed for at least an hour because of the crash, Duro said, but all of the campers were returned to the Boise area by Friday evening.

Duro said the summer camp, which hosts outdoor activities such as canoeing, archery and zip-lining, made the “difficult decision” to cancel a session that was set to begin Sunday, which would have been the last of the summer.

The organization determined it was not fair to expect the camp’s staff members to return so soon after the crash.

“It just didn’t feel like the right thing to do,” Duro said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.