UPDATE: Terry Giles, driver for school bus number three in Thursday's crash involving three school buses in Dade County, located at the rear of the line, was cited on Friday for following too close, according to Jeff Hartline, assistant chief for the Trenton Police Department.
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ORIGINAL STORY: Four school buses crashed in two separate incidents in Dade and Whitfield counties around 3 p.m. Thursday. No major injuries were reported.
One school bus in Cohutta, Ga., crashed after a car collided with its rear bumper in the 4300 block of Cohutta Varnell Road.
A spokesperson for Georgia State Patrol confirmed there were eight children from Cohutta Elementary School on board. The children were all sitting in the first three rows of the bus and suffered no injuries. They were transferred to another bus and taken home.
The driver of the car suffered a seat belt burn, but no other injuries were reported. The driver overcorrected after coming around a curve, causing the front of the car to hit the back bumper of the bus. The car then overturned into a ditch.
Around the same time, three Dade County school buses were involved in a crash in Trenton, Ga., near the intersection of Ingles Drive and Main Street.
Jane Harris, superintendent of Dade County Schools, confirmed that six high school students were transported to Erlanger to be checked out, and one was taken to a dentist. The remaining children were taken home.
One school bus driver was also taken to Erlanger as a precaution.
The buses were lined up at a traffic light and crashed into one another. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Thursday's crashes come less than six months after the deadly Woodmore Elementary School bus crash that killed six children.
On Nov. 21, Johnthony Walker, 24, was allegedly driving too fast on Talley Road in Brainerd and lost control of his bus causing it to topple and wrap around a walnut tree. The bus was filled with 37 children.
Walker faces six counts of vehicular homicide, four counts of reckless aggravated assault and one count each of reckless driving, reckless endangerment and use of portable electronic device by a school bus driver.
Contact staff writer Rosana Hughes at 423-757-6327 or rhughes@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @hughesrosana.