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SILVER LAKE - A trucker apparently choking on a soda slammed into the back of a school bus that had stopped with lights flashing Friday, injuring 16 people. "One of the kids that was stepping off the bus was actually ejected as the bus was hit from behind," said Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth. Salem Fire Battalion Chief Darin Noyes arrived on the scene moments after the collision to find Highway 50 littered with debris and the twisted wreckage of the big rig flush against a smoke-filled school bus. “At first you know, I was thinking this is a school bus,” Noyes said as he stood near the bus wreckage. “I wondered how many kids are on the bus because of the time of day.” Moments later, Noyes saw the children seemingly everywhere. The bus was loaded with 14 students from Wheatland Center Grade School, ranging from fourth to eighth grade. The injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, but two of the children were airlifted to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee. Most children were released from the hospital as of Saturday afternoon, according to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department. The boy thrown from the bus doorway at impact left Children's Saturday morning. "As rescue people came, they found children scattered all over the grass. Some of the children were bounced around pretty handily," Beth said. The front end of the semi was smashed in, and the bus was pushed at an angle across part of the divided four-lane highway. Neither vehicle tipped over. The 51-year-old trucker had facial lacerations and was incoherent when he first spoke with emergency personnel, said town of Salem Fire Chief Mike Slover. He was initially expected to be airlifted, but an ambulance took him away before a helicopter could arrive. The truck driver remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Froedtert Saturday. Authorities expect he will be in the hospital for several days. The sheriff said the man was talking to authorities later at the hospital. "He may have been occupied inside the cab drinking a soda," the sheriff said. "He was either coughing or choking on it." Investigators think the trucker did not see the bus. There were two very short sets of skid marks, indicating the driver barely hit the brakes before he plowed into the stopped bus. The accident happened about 3:40 p.m. just over a rolling ridge on state Highway 50 west of Highway B. STH 50 reopened at 5:15 Saturday morning. "The semi came over the hill and struck the bus right in the middle of the rear end," Beth said. Tim Howe was more than half way done with his Friday afternoon route when the semi plowed into his bus. “The kid that was stepping out of the bus,” recounted Howe. “He just went flying.” “Smoke just billowed up through the front of the bus and went right to the back,” Howe told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray. “The kids did a fantastic job of evacuating. The big kids helped the little kids who were scared in their seats and brought them along.” After the evacuation, one student was missing. Howe and a passerby went back into the bus and found the boy trapped. “He was kind of caught underneath one of the seat fronts, the padding things,” described Howe. “It had a little pipe on the bottom. He was sort of wedged under there. So, we pulled that up and got him out of there.” Howe is also a middle school special education teacher at Wheatland Center School. He does not usually drive the #6 bus, but frequently substitutes on various routes. Howe believes there’s nothing he could have done to prevent the crash. “You wonder how someone could do that to a bus,” said Howe. “First, it’s yellow. Then you’ve got those flashing lights. Then it’s got a sign out to the side with a flashing stop.” Howe believes kids are alive because of solid bus construction. He said the bus did an excellent job of absorbing the impact. Howe was treated for minor injuries at the Aurora Hospital in Burlington. He has a cut on his leg. Howe said he was wearing his seatbelt. The semi is owned by Wisconsin Logistics and was filled with liquid cocoa. We looked into the company's safety record. There was a possible issue with brakes on a truck pulled over in Michigan last year. But overall, the Department of Transportation gave the company a "satisfactory" rating. (The Associated Press contributed to this report)