A school bus carrying severely disabled students home from a trip to the zoo rolled over Thursday on a highway near Indianapolis, injuring a dozen people, including five children, state police said.

A truck was changing lanes on Interstate 65 near Zionsville about 2 p.m. Thursday when it cut in front of the special-needs school bus, Sgt. Rich Myers of the Indiana State Police said.

The bus driver, Audrey Kitchel, 55, of Lafayette, veered left into the grass median to avoid the collision and lost control of the bus, which rolled over and came to rest on its wheels in the median, Myers said.

All 12 passengers, seven adults and five children ranging from kindergartners to fourth-graders, were transported to Indianapolis hospitals where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, including neck and back pain, Myers said. All were wearing seat belts or other restraints.

None of the 12 was expected to be held overnight, hospital representatives said.

An inspection of the bus after the accident revealed no mechanical failures that would have contributed to this crash, Myers said.

Tippecanoe School Corp. Superintendent Scott Hanback said the bus was a Lafayette School Corp. bus carrying special-needs students from Mintonye Elementary School in southern Tippecanoe County. The students had gone to Indianapolis Zoo for a field trip.

"The bus was filled with students from the life-skills class," Hanback said, meaning they had severe and profound disabilities and multiple impairments — physical as well as developmental. At least one was in a wheelchair, he said.

All five students were elementary age, from 4 to 10 years old, Hanback said. He also said most of the seven adults were parents.

The truck that caused the crash did not stop, Myers said. The truck was described as either a white box truck or a white semitrailer, he said. The vague description of the truck made locating it difficult, Myers said.

Heavy river flooding in six Midwestern states that forced evacuations, shut down bridges, swamped homes and caused at least three deaths was at or near crest in some areas Sunday evening.

Rivers surged from the Quad Cities to St. Louis on Sunday. Hours earlier, National Guardsmen, volunteers, homeowners and jail inmates pitched in with sandbagging to hold back floodwaters that closed roads in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

Forecasters warned that "more rain was expected in the affected areas Tuesday into Wednesday," according to weather.com.

Record flooding swelled in Grand Rapids, Mich., with a crest of over 22 feet expected late Sunday into Monday. The water is expected to peak sometime Monday. 

The basements of some homes in the town of Comstock Park, Mich., were already full of water even before the surge Sunday morning, and the new swell forced some residents to leave their houses by boat.

“I’m surrounded by water all the way around my house,” resident Gary Smith told Grand Rapids NBC station WOOD-TV. “When I step out, I have a porch and then I have one step that’s still visible, and then I step down into at least three feet of water, four feet of water.”

Significant flooding is possible in places like Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Cairo, Ill., later this week, The Associated Press reported. 

The Chicago area, which was hit by widespread flooding over the weekend, was dry for much of the period. But more rain may be on the way on Tuesday and Wednesday as a developing cold front could bring as much as an inch of precipitation to the region, forecasters said.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared a state of emergency as record flooding occurred at a dozen river gauges across the state over the weekend.

All hands pitched in as the hard-hit town of Clarksville, Mo., worked to keep back the waters of the Mississippi River from the historic downtown area.

The river was at 34.7 feet on Sunday afternoon, over 10 feet above the 25-foot flood stage – and was expected to rise another foot before cresting Monday, according to the AP.

Jeff Roberson / AP

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, right, walks away from floodwaters after meeting with members of the Missouri National Guard as they make flood preparations Saturday in Clarksville, Mo.

“This is frustrating for people,” Trish Connelly, 57, told the Associated Press. “This isn’t as bad as 2008, but thank God it stopped raining.”

Hundreds were evacuated from towns in Indiana as the Wabash River rose by 14 feet on Saturday. Authorities in the town of Montezuma, Ind. called in volunteer firefighters to help fill sandbags as waters looked to crest at twice the normal flood stage.

“Right now we are just trying to help people,” town council President Allen Cobb told WTWO. “We’re just trying to keep people calm at this point, let them know the facts as we know them and put down some of the rumors they’re hearing.”

Indiana resident Robert Morgan, 64, of Arcadia, died Friday night after his car was caught by floodwaters and swept 100 yards downstream in Hamilton County, according to a statement from the local sheriff’s office.

The body of another driver and Arcadia resident, 42-year-old David A. Baker, was recovered on Sunday, according to the sheriff’s office. Police responded after receiving a distress call from Baker’s cell phone in the early hours of Saturday, and later recovered his vehicle and dog. Baker’s body was recovered on Sunday morning.

A third confirmed flood-related death occurred in Missouri, according to weather.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:47 AM EDT

An Indiana man is missing and another is dead after their vehicles were overtaken by floodwaters north of Indianapolis, police said Saturday, as high water caused by heavy rains continues to plague the Midwest.

Torrential rains over the last few days have led to flooding in parts of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, resulting in blocked roads, closed schools and rescues by boat from homes surrounded by floodwaters. 

Rain left the region on Friday, but in some areas flooding will continue beyond the weekend. Levels in some tributaries of the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers are projected to reach or surpass major flood stage, according to Accuweather.com. Sections of Chicago area rivers have hit new crest records, including the Des Plaines, the Chicago and the DuPage, according to the National Weather Service. 

Robert Morgan, 64, of Arcadia, Indiana, died Friday night after he tried to drive his car through high water and was carried 100 yards downstream in Hamilton County north of Indianapolis, according to a statement from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. 

Early Saturday morning, police responded to a 911 call from a motorist who said his vehicle was sinking in the water in the same location where Morgan's car was overtaken. 

Upon arrival, rescuers found an unoccupied truck 200 feet from the roadway. The phone that called 911 belonged to an Arcadia resident, but the owner had not been found, police said. 

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Friday, activating the National Guard. Iowa Gov. Terry Bransted issued disaster declarations for five eastern counties and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared 38 counties disaster areas. 

Chicago-area residents weary from battling floods woke up to snow on roofs and cars Saturday morning. Snow and hail also was seen Saturday morning in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The colder than normal temperatures in much of the northern part of the country are part of a strong cold front and large storm system that will clear the East Coast late on Saturday, according to the NWS.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the nation's broadest school voucher program, which gives poor and middle-class families public funds to help pay private school tuition.

Opponents, including the state teachers' union, had sued to block the program on grounds that nearly all the voucher money has been directed to religious schools.

Voucher systems have drawn criticism across the United States from critics who say they drain money from public schools and subsidize overtly religious education. Supporters say they offer families greater choice on where to educate their children.

In a 5-0 vote, the Indiana justices said that it did not matter that funds had been directed to religious schools, so long as parents - and not the state - decide where to use the tuition vouchers.

"Whether the Indiana program is wise educational or public policy is not a consideration," Chief Justice Brent Dickson wrote. The program is constitutional, he wrote, because the public funds "do not directly benefit religious schools but rather directly benefit lower-income families with school children."

The U.S. Supreme Court used similar reasoning in a 2002 ruling upholding a voucher program in Cleveland. Since then, voucher programs have been challenged in state, rather than federal, court. But opponents have found it an uphill climb.

Just last month, a state appeals court in Colorado upheld a voucher program that helped parents in one of the wealthiest U.S. counties pay private school tuition. The case is on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. Another closely-watched voucher case is pending in the Louisiana Supreme Court; a ruling is expected soon.

The Indiana voucher program is considered the broadest in the United States because it is not limited to low-income students or those attending failing schools - and because it is available to children statewide. A family of four with a household income of $64,000 a year is eligible for vouchers worth up to $4,500 per child.

Though more than half a million students in Indiana are eligible for the vouchers, just 9,000 enrolled this school year. Most are from urban communities with struggling public schools, but a sizeable slice live in rural and suburban neighborhoods as well.

Republican Governor Mike Pence has pushed to expand the program by opening eligibility to special-needs students and children in military families if their household income is as high as $85,000 for a family of four.

The Indiana legislature is also considering a bill that would give vouchers to kindergarten students who meet the income guidelines. The program currently requires students to spend a full year in public schools before they are eligible for a voucher.

Nationwide, vouchers are used by more than 100,000 students in a dozen states, including Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Wisconsin. Several other states use tax credits or education savings accounts to help families pay private school tuition.

Public school advocates have complained that the vouchers subsidize parochial schools that use an explicitly faith-based curriculum.

"Just because the Indiana Supreme Court said it's OK by our constitution doesn't mean this is a good idea," said Teresa Meredith, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association and a plaintiff in the case. "I don't believe it's a wise use of public money. It's still, at the end of the day, funding religious instruction" with tax dollars.

Supporters of the voucher program predicted that the ruling would clear the way for a rapid expansion of vouchers in Indiana and nationwide.

"Kids and parents won today," said Robert Enlow, president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, which supports voucher programs nationally. "Other states should look at this victory and see that the education establishment's ability to obstruct families' freedom to choose is waning."

Anonymous / AP

This undated photo provided by Indianapolis police shows Bei Bei Shuai, who is charged with murder in the Jan. 2, 2011, death of her 3-day-old daughter Angel Shuai.

Prosecutors who charged a mother with murdering her infant because she ate rat poison while pregnant have asked the Indiana judge trying the case to take steps that critics say could stifle any sympathy jurors might have for the woman.

Bei Bei Shuai's story has generated a wave of support from advocates who fear that her case could establish an unequal system that would effectively make pregnant women beholden to stricter rules than others under Indiana law. 

Shuai, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant from Shanghai, was eight months pregnant and heartbroken after a breakup when she ate rat poison in December 2010. She was hospitalized and doctors detected little wrong with the fetus' health for the first few days. Shuai gave birth to Angel Shuai on Dec. 31. Three days later, the baby died from bleeding in the brain. Medical staff reported her to the police; her lawyers said it was a suicide attempt. 

Prosecutors charged her in March 2011 with murder and feticide, saying her suicide note showed she intended to kill herself and her unborn baby. Shuai's lawyers say Indiana's fetal murder law was intended to apply only to people who attack pregnant women. 

Her trial is scheduled to start April 22. 

Prosecutors last week asked Judge Sheila Carlisle to bar courtroom spectators from wearing buttons expressing opinions about Shuai and to bar defense attorneys from questioning witnesses about their religious beliefs or from asking questions that could create sympathy for Shuai. 

Prosecutors say such motions are standard. 

Shawn Boyne, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis and an expert on trial procedure, said that while the type of motion is "relatively routine," the scope of the motion is unusual. Boyne said she understood the motive behind efforts to block questions that could elicit sympathy. 

"In some cases, merely asking a question may plant a question in a juror's mind," she said. 

Shuai's attorney, Linda Pence, said she didn't know how she could adhere to such a restriction. "You can't ask a court or ask a lawyer to word their questions to avoid sympathy. That's something the jury determines, not the lawyers." 

Boyne said witnesses' religious beliefs could be relevant if they motivated doctors and nurses to report Shuai to police. 

As for the spectators, Boyne said the U.S. Constitution and legal precedent protect their free speech rights, provided they're not disruptive. 

"Since it is the defendant's right to a fair trial that we are concerned with, I don't understand why the state would be prejudiced by this speech," she said in an email. 

A spokeswoman for Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said the motion was intended to make sure Shuai is tried based on the evidence. 

"We don't want to try this case in the media. We feel the case is best handled in the courtroom on its merits," said Curry's spokeswoman, Peg McLeish. 

A petition on change.org urging the state to drop the charges against Shuai has nearly 11,000 signatures. 

"This case aims to set a precedent that reduces pregnant women to walking wombs under total state control and surveillance at all times, subject to getting thrown in jail if for whatever reason we can't or don't obey," said Brooke M. Beloso, an assistant professor in gender studies at Butler University in Indianapolis who started the petition. 

A group that is helping to defend Shuai said the issue is one of equality. 

"I think the motion is an admission by the prosecutor that the case is recognized by a growing number of people in Indiana who recognize he is setting up a separate and unequal system of treatment that is going to affect all pregnant women, not just Bei Bei Shuai," said Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women. 

McLeish declined to discuss the motivation for the motion. 

"The prosecution is simply requesting that the Rules of Evidence be adhered to throughout the proceedings and to clarify those standards and expectations at the outset before any concerns arise. Ultimately, the state wants this and any case to be tried on its merits," she said in a statement. 

As concerns the evidence against Shuai, Carlisle ruled in January that the doctor who performed the autopsy on Angel can't testify that rat poison was the cause of her death because she didn't consider other possibilities, including a drug Shuai received in the hospital. Curry hasn't said whether he'll seek another medical opinion. 

Seven hair dressers from Indianapolis have taken a coworker to court claiming she cheated them out of their share of a $9.5 million Hoosier Lotto jackpot.

For her part, the woman claims it was her ticket that won, not an office pool ticket, so she wants to keep all of the winnings.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Heather A. Welch heard testimony on Wednesday and said she would rule on the case by the end of the week, the Indianapolis Star reported.

According to NBC station WTHR-TV, eight stylists who work at a local salon pooled their money to buy lottery tickets for the Feb. 16 drawing.

One of the women, identified by the Indianapolis star as Christina Shaw, was sent out to buy the tickets at a local gas station, but also apparently bought tickets for herself.

Shaw then discovered she'd won, but before making the trek to the Hoosier Lottery headquarters to claim her jackpot, stopped by the hair salon to inform her fellow stylists that her ticket had won, not theirs.

The coworkers called attorney Scott Montross who filed a restraining order to freeze the money. The court action, Montross said, was not against Shaw herself but only to keep the jackpot from being paid out.

“We are concerned that the winning ticket may have been purchased with the group’s money," Montross earlier told the Star. "There’s a dispute about it, but until there is something more definitive, we were trying to keep a low profile. But we needed to slow the train down."

Montross, the Star reported, said the coworkers at Lou’s Creative Styles routinely each contributed $5 each for lottery tickets, and that they agreed that whoever bought the tickets for the group couldn’t buy tickets for themselves in the same place.

Shaw did not comment on the case, though she did indicate to the Star that she had hired an attorney.

A Marion County judge decided to place a hold on the winnings, which after hearing from both sides on Wednesday, she extended until Friday.

According to the Star, the coworkers filing the case were identified as: Lucy Lewis-Johnston, Melanie Ann Bonar; Margie Day-Braugh; Judith Kay Pallatin; Patricia L. Pohlman; Linda Sue Stewart; and Edna M. Thomas.

A voice message left for Montross by NBC News wasn’t immediately returned.

Cook County Sheriff via AP

Steven L. Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder and weapons charges in Indiana before being mistakenly freed.

Police in two states and FBI agents on Thursday night were searching for a convicted murderer who was mistakenly released by Illinois authorities.

Steven L. Robbins, 44, who is serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana, was mistakenly released Wednesday by Illinois authorities, officials from the Indiana Department of Corrections said.

Robbins was released from Indiana State Prison to appear in Cook County Circuit Court for drug charges on Tuesday, authorities said. Those charges against him were subsequently dropped.

But for reasons not known Thursday, Illinois authorities released him instead of returning him to the custody of Indiana officials.

"He walked out of Gate 5 [of the jail] and hasn’t been seen by authorities since," Cook County Sheriff's Department Frank Bilecki told the Chicago Sun-Times, referring to the jail’s main entrance and exit.

More news from NBCChicago.com

Robbins remained at large Thursday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in both Indiana and Illinois, officials said.

Cook County officials acknowledged the mistake in a press release.

"[Sheriff Tom Dart] has ordered an investigation into the facts and circumstances regarding his court appearance and release from custody," the statement said.

Robbins is serving a 60-year sentence for murder and carrying a handgun without a license in Indiana, according to a release from the Indiana Department of Correction. His earliest projected release date was June 29, 2029.

Robbins is described as a black man who stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He has a tattoo on the right side of his neck that says "Nicole," officials said.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should dial 911 or call Crime Stoppers at 317-252-8477.

NBCChicago.com