School bus runs into utility lines in Pr. George's

Update, 5:55 p.m.:
Bob Hainey, a spokesman for Pepco, said the utility lines removed were not electrical wires, but rather, cable television lines. He said Pepco assisted with the removal of the lines.

Original post:
About 40 Hyattsville Middle School students will be delayed getting home after their bus ran into some low hanging utility lines, a fire department spokesman said.

The incident happened at about 3 p.m. on Guilford Road in College Park, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department. Neither the bus driver nor any of the students on board were injured, he said.

The lines were stretched across the road from a pole to a house, and — perhaps because of wind — were hanging low enough that they were in the path of the bus, Brady said. Not realizing the lines were there, the bus driver drove into them, he said.

At about 4 p.m., Pepco crews removed the lines from the bus, Brady said, but the bus remains on scene while officials talk to the driver. Brady said the students, who had stayed after school for some performing arts activities and were on their way home, were “all very well behaved and orderly” while they were stuck.

-- Matt Zapotosky