TOUR BUS TOPPLES: 47 hurt

Bus Transporting Middle School Students Blows Front Tire on U.S. 15

BY RICK FULTON - Times Staff Writer

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

More than 40 passengers, mostly juveniles, were transported for evaluation and/or treatment following a one-vehicle accident involving a tour bus Monday on Route 15 in Straban Township.

According to state police, the driver of a charter bus carrying 46 passengers lost control of the vehicle in the northbound lane of Route 15 just south of Route 394 overpass around 5:35 p.m.

The bus subsequently crossed over the median strip into the southbound lane into oncoming traffic and overturned onto its right side after striking the embankment on the west side of the roadway, the front of the bus facing north.

The wrecked bus was transporting passengers comprised of 13 to 14-year-old students from Wilson Middle School, 900 Waggoners Gap Road, Carlisle, and their chaperones on a return trip from Washington, D.C.

As dozens of emergency personnel and police continued to converge on the scene of the accident, groups of students, some lying, some sitting, some standing in small groups and ringed by rescuers, awaited transport for medical treatment or evaluation, as firemen gathered up their belongings from the roadside.

Convoys of ambulances formed along the wreck scene in the closed southbound lane as emergency workers accessed and prioritized the nature of individual injuries.

At one point, a student or adult was being neck-braced, back-boarded by rescue personnel and loaded onto an awaiting ambulance at the rate of one a minute.

“It was difficult getting friends to let go of friends to get them treated,” Gettysburg Fire Department Chief Kenneth Kime, Jr. said.

Kime, who happened to be traveling south on Route 15 at the time of the crash, was one of the first on the scene, and actually witnessed the accident.

“All I saw was a black shadow going across the road,” then, as he approached he saw “thick dust settling.” Kime pulled over near the wreck. “I started triaging the patients and notified 9-1-1.”

Of the 47 individuals on the bus, five passengers and the driver, whose name police had not released by press time, were transported from the scene by ambulance to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Their injuries were described as serious but not life-threatening, according to Kime, “as far as we could tell.”

Of the remainder, 24 were transported by ambulance to Gettysburg Hospital, and the remainder, described as the “walking wounded,” were then loaded aboard another bus provided by Wolf’s and taken to gettysburg hospital.Kime said some of the kids didn’t want to get on that bus, but finally agreed to.

Some confusion in numbers remained on-going at the scene because police and fire could not initially get an accurate head-count of how many people were supposed to be on the bus before the accident.

“One of the chaperones initially said 54, then 57. She was obviously shaken up,” Kime stated.

The Motor Coach Industries-manufactured bus belonged to Wolf’s Bus Lines out of York Springs. The bus that crashed was being followed by a second Wolf’s bus that was not involved.

About 300 feet south of the wrecked bus, a number of large chunks of tire lie alongside the northbound lane, and police said it appeared the front driver-side tire and blown or come apart, causing the driver to lose control.

The bus driver, who attempted to aid injured students in spite of his own injuries following the crash, told police the tire went out on the driver’s side.

Kime said witnesses stated that, when the tire went, the driver “tried feverishly to get the bus under control.”

Excessive speed was not considered a factor, according to a very preliminary police assessment.

The Gettysburg fire chief said drivers who witnessed the accident left their vehicle and began to try and open up escape hatches in the overturned bus.

However, he said, by then most of the children and adults had “self-extricated” themselves by climbing through the the front of the bus where the windshield had been broken out.

As the kids and adults crawled out of the wrecked bus, “there was a lot of crying and hugging,” Kime stated.

The last student was transported from the scene at 6:20 p.m.Ambulances responding included those from Aspers, Gettysburg, Biglerville, New Oxford, Bonneauville, Bendersville, Littlestown and SAVES.

Also responding to the scene were members of the Gettysburg Fire Department, fire police, Medic 28 and Medic 46.The southbound lane of Route 15 was closed for several hours.