A bus carrying the Kahuku High School girls water polo team rolled over into a ditch off Kamehameha Highway in Waikane yesterday, tossing passengers, seat cushions and backpacks about.

More than two dozen people were taken to hospitals; all were treated and sent home.

The accident happened about 3:25 p.m. near Waikane Store. Witnesses said the bus driver swerved to avoid a car that had stopped suddenly.

"At first I thought we got into a fender bender," said Rosie Jaffurs, a Kahuku senior. "The bus driver screamed, and then we heard the tires skid. There was a BOOM BOOM, then we flipped. It happened so fast."

The team was traveling to Honolulu for a scrimmage with Pac-Five at Mid-Pacific Institute.

Police contraflowed traffic in the area for about five hours while workers righted the bus and pulled it out of the ditch. The road was fully reopened about 8:30 p.m.

"It was so scary," said coach Makana Whitford, who was not hurt. "I feel so bad for the girls. The bus totally flipped."

Whitford said some people had cuts on their heads and some hurt their backs.

"There are no seatbelts on the bus, so the girls sitting on the left side hit their heads on the windows," Whitford said.

The team got of the bus by crawling out the rear door or by pushing windows open near the front end.

"Some of the girls are laughing, but we're all a little shaken up," Whitford said.

She traveled with some of the players to Castle Medical Center, while others were taken to The Queen's Medical Center.

Recalled Jaffurs: "The seats came off and all the girls on the left were thrown onto the girls on the right. All of our stuff came flying over onto our heads. It was a mess.

"Everyone was screaming and crying, and asking, 'Are you OK?' Gina (Ahue, a senior) opened the back door and we got out, but people were being carried out the front end too, somehow.

"There were a lot of people helping. They got there so fast, it was amazing."

Ahue said the bus "was almost completely flipped over."

"The bushes were coming into us, and we were like, 'We're crashing!' No one knew there was a ditch. Everyone was screaming, it was insane. I flew to the right side of the bus and banged the window with my shoulder, but I was more shocked than anything else. It was just 'Oh, my God.'

"Some of the seat cushions came off and landed on us."

City Emergency Services spokesman Bryan Cheplic said two ambulances, an EMS rapid-response vehicle and a city bus were used to take 23 students and an adult to Castle Medical Center and three students to The Queen's Medical Center.

Whitford said everyone was eventually released from the hospitals. Several players were examined extensively and one had a hairline fracture of her ribs, the coach said.

Cheplic said the large-scale medical transport effort was a "huge cooperative effort among different agencies." The city provided the bus and a driver.