EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) – Several students were injured in a school bus accident on the Garden State Parkway in Atlantic County Monday afternoon.

The accident happened at about 3:30 p.m. near exit 34 on the northbound side of the parkway in Egg Harbor Township.

Police say the bus, which was carrying students from charter Tech High School in Somers Point to Atlantic City, veered off the road and crashed into a tree.

“The bus was about to tip over and I thought I was going to die,” said student Infinity Watson.

“I saw the wheel just going down the highway and it just turned…and then people started following on me so I have really bad pains,” said student Olympia Watson.

Olympia was sitting in the back of the bus, on the right side, when she said she felt a bump and then saw the wheel rolling away. That’s when the bus started fishtailing and going off the road into a ditch.

“All I know is that I got a phone call and all you heard was screaming, horrible, horrible screaming,” said parent Michele Griffin.

According to investigators, the 36 students on the bus and the driver were taken to area hospitals. Of those transported, police say 12 students were treated – six at Shore Memorial Hospital and six at Atlanticare Regional Medical Center Mainland Campus. Police say their injuries are minor.

“My daughter did say she (the bus driver) did everything she could not to run into a car,” said Griffin.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.