Twenty-six students and two adults were taken to two hospitals today after a school bus carrying the Kahuku High School girls water polo team flipped into a ditch on Kamehameha Highway near Waikane Store, according to a city emergency response official.

"It was so scary," said coach Makana Whitford, who was unhurt. "I feel so bad for the girls. The bus totally flipped."

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

Two students, one at each hospital, were in serious condition and all others stable, said Cheplic.

Some students were admitted at Queen's while all the students sent to Castle weretreated and released.

The overturned bus was righted and towed at 8:02 p.m. Both lanes of Kamehameha Highway in the area were reopened at 8:28 p.m. Traffic was being contraflowed most of the afternoon.

Kahuku has won all five O'ahu Interscholastic Association titles since the sport began in 2003.

The team was on its way to Mid-Pacific Institute in Manoa to play a scrimmage against Pac-Five.

"There are no seat belts on the bus, so the girls sitting on the left side hit their heads on the windows" when the bus swerved to avoid a stopped car in the roadway and flipped onto its right side, Whitford said.

The team crawled out the rear door of the bus 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 the girls who went to Castle Medical Center.

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