Metro

Driver dead, 4 kids hurt in school-bus crash

Killing the bus driver and sending kids to the hospital (above).

Killing the bus driver and sending kids to the hospital (above). (Dennis Clark)

ORDEAL: This cement truck smashed head on into the school bus in Matinecock, LI, yesterday, killing the bus driver and sending kids to the hospital (inset). (
)

A Long Island school-bus driver was killed and six other people — including four young boys — were injured when an out-of-control cement truck slammed head on into the bus yesterday, cops said.

The truck was headed south on Oyster Bay Road in tony Matinecock at around 3:20 p.m. when it struck an LIRR overpass — which dislodged its barrel and caused the driver to swerve, Nassau County Inspector Kenneth Lack said.

The truck, in turn, careened into the bus.

The bus driver, who was not identified, died at the scene, Lack said.

The school-bus aide, a 64-year-old man, was rushed to Winthrop University Hospital in critical condition.

The cement truck’s driver, whose identity was withheld, was expected to survive.

The four kids — three 6-year-olds and a 9-year-old who were returning from Syosset-Woodbury Community Park — escaped serious injuries.

One mom, Cynthia Robson, learned about the accident from another mother, heard the sirens and rushed to the grisly scene.

Her 6-year-old son, Daniel, suffered only scraped knees, a cut to his cheek and a headache.

“He’s OK physically, but I think emotionally, it’s hard,” she said of Daniel seeing the bus driver gruesomely injured.

“It’s all slowly coming back to him now,” she told The Post last night.

She said her son normally sits toward the middle of the bus, but by luck, he was seated in the back yesterday.

Three of the children were treated at and released from Nassau University Medical Center. The fourth was taken to Winthrop and was in stable condition in Intensive Care, Robson said.

The youngsters are in a program run by the Town of Oyster Bay for children with developmental disabilities.

Cops said there were no immediate indications of criminality, and no summonses had been issued as of last night.