A Fulton City School District bus carrying members of the cross-country team caught fire Saturday morning after a sedan crossed the center line and struck it head-on in the town of Hannibal, leaving four people injured, including the sedan's driver, who was a former Fulton runner herself. The crash happened around 9:38 a.m. on State Route 3 near its intersection with County Route 7, a rural stretch of two-lane highway that has seen deadly collisions before.
The bus was headed to the McQuaid Invitational, a major regional cross-country meet held Saturday at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, according to a report shared on Facebook. The bus was traveling westbound when the eastbound sedan crossed the center line and struck it head-on, according to the Oswego County Sheriff's Office, as reported by Newport Dispatch. The bus ended up off the south side of the roadway and caught fire after leaving the pavement, per the same report.
Two students and a school district employee were taken to Oswego Hospital with minor injuries. The sedan's driver, 20-year-old Joely LaPage of Fulton, was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse with serious injuries but is expected to survive, the outlet's report states.
A Former Teammate Behind the Wheel
LaPage is a former Fulton High School student-athlete who ran varsity cross country for the district through her senior season in 2023, according to records reviewed by Tully Runners. Public law enforcement blotter records also show LaPage was previously arrested in Oswego County on August 14, 2025, on a misdemeanor charge of second-degree aggravated harassment, per Oswego County Today.
The Fulton Fire Department dispatched Engine 3 to assist Hannibal crews with fire suppression and bus stabilization, while Fulton's Rescue 2 unit handled vehicle extrication for LaPage, according to a statement from the Fulton Fire Department. The response drew multiple agencies under mutual aid, including New York State Police, Oswego County Emergency Management, Menter Ambulance, the Oswego County Fire Coordinator's Office, the Fulton City Fire Department, Granby Center Volunteer Fire Department, Hannibal Volunteer Fire Department, and Oswego Town Volunteer Fire Department, all of whom assisted at the scene, Newport Dispatch's report notes.
District Response and the Road Home for the Team
Fulton City School District Superintendent Douglas Lawrence said administrators and representatives from Golden Sun Bus Service responded directly to the scene to help families reunite with student-athletes, according to Cortland Crime. Lawrence added that the district does not expect the crash to affect the remainder of the cross-country season, per the same report. Golden Sun Bus Service is the private transit vendor that handles student transportation for the district and deployed personnel to manage student safety and parent communications after the crash, Cortland Crime reported.
The roadway was closed for several hours before reopening, per Newport Dispatch. Students and employees may coordinate with the Oswego County Sheriff's Office to recover belongings left on the bus, and the sheriff's office may return any possessions found during the investigation; it can be reached at (315) 349-3411.
A Dangerous Stretch of Rural Highway
The intersection of State Route 3 and County Route 7 in Hannibal has a documented history of severe crashes, including a fatal three-vehicle accident in November 2015 and a double-fatal head-on collision in October 2009 between County Route 7 and Pollard Road, according to Oswego County Today. State Route 3 serves as a primary two-lane rural arterial carrying traffic between Oswego, Fulton, and Cayuga County.
It is not the first Oswego County school bus collision in recent years. A March 2023 crash in New Haven involving a Mexico Academy Central School District bus and a pickup truck at County Route 1 and County Route 6 resulted in severe injuries that later claimed the life of a 63-year-old bus monitor, per Oswego County Today's prior reporting. That crash occurred when the bus driver failed to stop at an intersection stop sign, the outlet reported at the time.
Traffic enforcement data compiled by Rosenblum Law shows the New York State Police issued 69.2% of all speeding citations in Oswego County in 2024, compared to 18.9% from the Oswego County Sheriff's Office and 11.9% from municipal police departments, reflecting how state troopers and county deputies share primary enforcement duties on rural highways like Route 3 outside city limits.
