HECTIC SCENE AT HOSPITAL

BY SCOT ANDREW PITZER - Times Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 7:14 AM EDT

“I just heard everybody crying and yelling and screaming,” said Wilson Middle School student Austin Lisk. “It (stinks) — it’s just a huge adrenaline rush that I never want to experience again.”

The eighth grader was one of more than 40 Carlisle area students and chaperones involved in an Adams County bus accident Monday afternoon along U.S. 15, just north of Gettysburg. A front tire of the Wolf’s Bus Line coach — which was hauling students home from a Washington D.C. field trip — popped shortly after 5:30 p.m., and the bus rolled over onto its right side.

Lisk’s blue hooded sweatshirt was dotted with blood stains.

“We went off the road and flipped in the air,” said Lisk, who was discharged from Gettysburg Hospital several minutes before 8 p.m. “I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt, but there are a lot of students here.”

Gettysburg Hospital was the scene of utter commotion Monday evening: 12 students were transported to the facility via ambulance and treated for minor injuries, and another 24 students were taken to the hospital by another Wolf’s bus and evaluated. Five individuals were flown from the scene of the accident to Hershey Medical Center.

“The situation is very hectic,” admitted Wellspan spokesman Barry Sparks. “Some students are being treated for injuries, some have already went home, and we’re still contacting some parents.”

The media had restricted access to students and parents at the hospital campus. Television and newspaper reporters were instructed by security to convene in a hospital area far away from the parking lot where family and students were entering and exiting the building.

Two reporters and a cameraman were seeking comments from students and guardians along South Washington Street, when they were scolded by security and told to return to the sidewalk because they “were on private property.”

Most of the students and parents declined to talk on the record to the media, but some did disclose accident details.

“I just want to go home,” one visibly-shaken student said as she got into her mother’s van.

Three students, after being transported to Gettysburg Hospital, were subsequently taken to the York Hospital Trauma Center. Two students were airlifted — helicopters arrived at the Gettysburg Hospital campus around 8:15 p.m. and departed nearly 15 minutes later — while the third one was taken to the trauma center via ambulance.

“The students that were flown to York were deemed by physicians at Gettysburg Hospital to be best treated at a trauma center,” explained Wellspan Public Relations Director Rick Ayers. “York is the closest.”

As of press time, nine patients were still undergoing evaluation and treatment at Gettysburg Hospital. Dozens of students had already been released to their parents and were taken home. Medical officials were unable to disclose specific injuries.