An elementary school student was killed and 23 other children were injured after a minivan hit their school bus on the first day of school, Ohio authorities said.

The school bus went off the road just after 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in Clark County, Ohio, after being struck by the minivan, state police said. It overturned and landed upside-down.

The child who was killed was ejected from the school bus, Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Tyler S. Ross told reporters Tuesday.

“It’s a tragic incident,” Ross said. “It was on its way to school.”

The bus was carrying 52 students. Twenty-two were treated at hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening, and one was taken to a children’s hospital in serious condition. The bus driver, minivan driver, and van passenger were also hurt, none with life-threatening injuries.

Ross told The Washington Post via email that no new information or updates from the state police, including on the critically injured student’s condition, were available Wednesday.

The Northwestern Local Schools district canceled classes on Wednesday, opening the elementary and junior-senior high schools for anyone who needed support or to talk to grief counselors.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families that have been impacted by this tragedy,” Superintendent Jesse Steiner said in a post on the district website.

An investigation into the crash was ongoing Wednesday. The school district did not immediately return a call from The Post.

Some parents rushed to the scene and took their children to the hospital, Ross said, while 13 children were taken by ambulance. Other parents met their children at a reunification point.

The school bus did not have seat belts, Ross said.

Only eight states require seat belts in school buses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ohio is not among them.

In a 2018 report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration noted that there was no federal requirement for large school buses to have seat belts and recommended that each state require new buses to have them.

School buses are designed to protect passengers using a technology called compartmentalization, which uses the bus seats to absorb impact, and NHTSA reports that school buses are safer for children riding to school than cars.

However, NHTSA research has shown seat belts reduce head injuries and fatalities, according to the report. Crashes in which the bus rolls over are far more likely to result in deaths, NHTSA said, and passengers without seat belts can be ejected.

From 2011 to 2020, 113 people in school transportation vehicles were killed in crashes, 60 of them passengers and 53 drivers, according to the agency.

“My heart breaks for the students and families involved in this tragic accident,” Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio) said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.