Wearing seatbelts was what prevented causalities from occurring in Wednesday’s bus crash on a highway in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, keeping passengers inside the bus from falling out of the vehicle after the crash, police said Thursday.

Police investigating the accident said most of the passengers had been wearing their seatbelts, and therefore avoided fatal injuries.

The bus, which was carrying 44 university freshmen from the Kumoh National Institute of Technology to a resort in Gangwon Province, crashed into a guardrail at around 5:30 p.m. after slipping on a wet road.

One of the students on the bus said “the driver swerved sharply to avoid hitting an elk.”

After the bus broke through the guardrail, it plunged 5 meters down an embankment. The 62-year-old bus driver died from injuries in the accident, while four to five students who suffered fractures were immediately moved to a hospital.

Based on passengers’ statements, police said they will figure out the actual cause of the crash after they complete decoding the black box.

The school said Thursday it had organized an emergency planning committee of professors and faculty members. It immediately canceled the orientation event. All the injured students were sent to a hospital to receive treatment, while the remaining students were sent home, the school said.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)