At Least Two Die in Greyhound Crash

Associated Press ^ | Sunday, June 09, 2002

[Dog Gone]

COLORADO CITY, Texas (AP) -- A Greyhound bus crashed into a tractor-trailer on a central Texas interstate Sunday, killing at least two passengers and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said.

The bus was headed east on Interstate 20 from Dallas to Los Angeles when it rear-ended the tractor-trailer, Mitchell County Sheriff's Department deputy Darrell Campbell said.

He said the cause of the crash wasn't immediately known, but the weather was clear when it happened near Colorado City, about 200 miles west of Dallas.

``I know there were some fatalities, but I am not sure on a number,'' he said. ``There were a lot of injured people.''

Lynn Brown, a spokeswoman for Greyhound Bus in Dallas, said at least 22 of the 35 passengers on the bus were being treated for injuries. She said she had been told as many as four people were dead.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Abilene, Sweetwater, Colorado City and Lubbock for treatment, and the families of the victims were being notified, Brown said.

``Our first priority is to make sure the victims and their families are taken care of,'' she said.

Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the largest provider of intercity bus transportation. The company has more than 18,000 daily departures from 2,600 cities across the country.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Umm, when did Los Angeles move east? "The bus was headed east on Interstate 20"

[NerdDad]

The bus was headed east on Interstate 20 from Dallas to Los Angeles ??????

Getting almost out to my old stomping ground and I can tell you, you just can't get from Dallas to LA by heading EAST. Somebody get this AP writer a towel, that egg on his face will ruin his tie if it drips.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Funny, but when we lived there, Colorado City was WEST of Sweetwater........... things sure change when you move away..........

[RedBloodedAmerican]

East on I20 from Dallas to L.A. They had a LONG journey ahead of them. Sad news.

[NerdDad]

Dang it, that preview twice, post once thing gets me all the time. I see we think alike.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

You can't? Aren't there any ferries crossing the Atlantic this time of year?

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

What part of West Texas is called your old stomping ground?

[Jeff Chandler]

"The bus was headed east on Interstate 20"

Was this perhaps a head-on collision caused by entering the highway by way of the offramp?

[Dog Gone]

They've changed it in the updated story and have it as a bus travelling from Los Angeles to Dallas.

[NerdDad]

Not on I-20, anyway.

[NerdDad]

Grew up in Kermit. Also did some time in Monahans. Sure miss that part of the world. It's a shame there are more/better jobs in Buttcrack MS than in God's country.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Agree with ya there! lol........ jobs were few and far between out in West "Central" (lol) Texas...........

[TxBec]

um... central Texas???

[tutstar]

Looks like everyone knows that L.A. is west. I'm from that area but still anyone should know that.LOL

[let freedom sing]

At Least Two Die in Greyhound Crash

She said she had been told as many as four people were dead.

OK-- which is it?

[muawiyah]

Clearly none of these people would be able to make headway going North on One South, or South on One North in the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts!

[glock rocks]

Three Passenger Killed When Greyhound Bus Crashes Into Tractor-Trailer in Central Texas
The Associated Press
Published: Jun 9, 2002 COLORADO CITY, Texas (AP) - A Greyhound bus crashed into a tractor-trailer in central Texas early Sunday, killing three passengers and injuring about two dozen others, officials said.

The bus was on Interstate 20, traveling from Los Angeles to Dallas, when it hit the tractor-trailer as the truck merged into traffic from a rest stop, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Erin Hale.

She said all three people killed in the crash were at the front of the bus.

About two dozen other passengers were taken to local hospitals. Hale did not know the extent of their injuries.

"Since nobody wears seat belts except for the driver on a bus, it makes things more serious when a wreck does happen," she said. She said the bus driver, whose name has not been released, was expected to survive.

The crash occurred just outside the small town of Loraine, about 250 miles west of Dallas.

The bus was directly behind a tractor-trailer on the interstate about 5:30 a.m. when the second tractor-trailer began slowly entering the highway, Hale said. The first truck pulled into another lane to make room, but the Greyhound driver didn't have time to move, she said. The weather was clear at the time.

Lynn Brown, a spokeswoman for Greyhound bus lines in Dallas, said the company was attempting to notify family members of those involved and had sent a crisis team to the scene. She said she knew of injuries to at least 22 of the 35 passengers on the bus.

"Our first priority is to make sure the victims and their families are taken care of," she said.

Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the largest provider of intercity bus transportation. The company has more than 18,000 daily departures from 2,600 cities across the country.

AP-ES-06-09-02 1409EDT

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Yes, they call the area near Abilene and west to about Big Spring "West Central Texas" now......... funny, huh?

[MeekOneGOP]

um... central Texas???


Colorado City, TX http://mq-mapgend.websys.aol.com/mqmapgend?MQMapGenRequest=FDR2dmwjDE%3Byt29%26FDJnci4Jkqj,MMCJ:HOEvq%3Baax5r2:%29u725yrl%26%40%24:%26%40%24l%26w1w%26472%26ESEKGF%3DTPWIK,bllryn%26%3D22urz51%40%24:%26%40%24:%26a2:

[Dust in the Wind]

"The bus was directly behind a tractor-trailer on the interstate about 5:30 a.m. when the second tractor-trailer began slowly entering the highway, Hale said. The first truck pulled into another lane to make room, but the Greyhound driver didn't have time to move, she said. The weather was clear at the time."

I hope the least the driver of the bus gets is a ticket for tailgating. Following too close to see a semi merging into traffic?

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

That map doesn't really look like it is to scale....... my map looks further out to El Paso than that one does........ mine shows 447 miles from Abilene to El Paso...... Abilene to Sweetwater is 32 miles and another 30 from Sweetwater to Colorado City........so it is about 345 miles from Colorado City to El Paso........

About 5 years ago they started to refer to the Abilene to Big Spring area as "West Central Texas".......

[maxwell]

CNN had four people dead last I checked...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

This is listed on the West Central Texas Council of Governments web page:

Member Counties:

Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Fisher, Haskell, Jones, Kent, Knox,

Mitchell, Nolan, Runnels, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Stonewall, Taylor, Throckmorton,

[RobFromGa]

A few questions:
Did they still finish the race,
Did the people who bet on the two dogs that crashed get their money back?
What track did this happen at?

[Brownie74]

Thanks for the pings. I'm sure this will be on local TV this afternoon.

[DoughtyOne]

Alright Freepers.  Click here for a trailer load of fun.  Only 21 days left for the early-bird rates.  See you in Vegas...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

DoughtyOne - will you write my husband and tell him I really really really want to go to Vegas??????????? lol

[Octavius]

People die in auto accidents daily with no word from the media...
Guess Grey Hound hasn't paid for it's share of TV advertising lately.

[Dog Gone]

It's the fact that it's public transportation, I think.

Why is any of this news? Heck, why were the deaths in the WTC on 9/11 news? It killed a couple thousand people, but approximately 7,000 people die every day in this country.

A minor blip, no?

[dr_who]

Shame. In other news, some 300 Greyhound passengers nationwide in this week alone puked their guts out due to the effects of fast food joints at the rest stops, the driver's driving skills, the other passengers, and the music that was played on the speakers.

[DoughtyOne]

Dear husband of WhyisaTexasgirlinPA;

Your wife really really wants to go to Vegas.

P.S. Separate rooms of course... (lol)

There are some reasonable flights out there and you could find another lady to share a room with. This could be a lot less expensive than you think.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

DoughtyOne, Hey, I didn't want you to entice my husband to room with some other woman!!! I wanted him there with ME!!!!!

Now you've done it.......... Txgirl.........

[DoughtyOne]

LOL, I didn't think your husband was going. Oops. Over and out...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

OH.......you meant for ME to share a room with another woman......lol......see how easily this stuff gets turned around on here........lol Txgirl.......

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

This is from the Sweetwater newspaper (closest "big" lol city to where the bus crash happened) - thought you might like an update........

Three dead in Sunday bus wreck

Greyhound driver from Sweetwater in serious condition

By Herrel Hallmark

The Reporter Editor

Three people died and five remained in hospitals Monday after a Greyhound bus rear-ended a tractor-trailer about 5:30 a.m., Sunday, along Interstate 20 just outside of Loraine, near the Mitchell-Nolan County line east of Roscoe.

Either 36 or 37 people -- all of whom had been riding inside the bus -- were transported from the scene, according to Sweetwater Fire Chief Jerry Huffman. The uncertainty in the exact number, Huffman said, was because two people were transported in one ambulance to Mitchell County Hospital in Colorado City but one of those persons was immediately taken to Mitchell County Airport and transferred by a fixed-wing medical aircraft to Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock.

Huffman said it was not known if the person who was transferred to Lubbock had been counted among the 25 persons sent to Mitchell County Hospital.

"It was difficult to get a good count at the scene, because injured people inside the bus had all been thrown together toward the front of the bus," Huffman said. He added that some of the injured were on top of others in the bus.

Since the front of the bus was the point of impact and the only door was at the front of the bus, Huffman explained, rescuers had to remove the injured by placing them on backboards and handing them out one by one through the windows of the bus that were six feet above the ground.

Once outside the bus, the seriousness of the injuries were evaluated by a triage team and the persons were transported to area hospitals.

The more seriously injured were flown from the scene by medical helicopters. Shannon AirMed out of San Angelo made three trips from the scene, flying two patients to Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital (RPMH) in Sweetwater and one to Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene. Lubbock AeroCare made one flight with a patient to Hendrick.

In addition to those sent to Mitchell County Hospital, Huffman said, a total of eight persons were transported to RPMH in Sweetwater and two were taken to Hendrick. One person, a female passenger who had not been identified by Sunday night, was pronounced dead at the scene and the body was removed by a funeral home.

Both of those transported by helicopter to RPMH later died at the hospital. Carmen de Gardea, 53, of Dallas died at 6:31 a.m., while Marylyn Raza, 51, of Abilene died at 8:25 a.m., according to authorities. Six other persons who had been taken to RPMH were treated and released.

"The people who were killed were at the front of the bus," Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) communications operator Erin Hale said.

The bus driver, Earlie Johnson, 39, of Sweetwater, was trapped inside the bus for approximately two hours, Huffman said, while rescue workers used two or three Jaws of Life and a power saw to cut away portions of the bus. Johnson survived the crash but had sustained a major injury to his leg, Huffman said.

Johnson was one of the two persons taken to Hendrick, where Johnson's leg had to be amputated. Celia Davis, hospital spokeswoman, said Johson was listed in serious but stable condition.

The Abilene hospital also listed Terri Block, 62, of Chandler, Ariz., in stable condition. She underwent surgery for two fractured legs.

Twenty-four people were treated and released at Mitchell County Hospital and one person was held for observation. Two other patients, initially taken to the hospital, were transferred to a trauma center in Lubbock.

Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock listed Phyllis Thorne, 102, in critical condition and Juan Sandoval, 43, in serious condition Sunday night. Their hometowns were unavailable.

The bus was being driven by Johnson behind a tractor-trailer traveling east along the interstate about 5:30 a.m., Sunday, when a second tractor-trailer began slowly entering the highway from a rest stop, DPS communications operator Hale said.

The first tractor-trailer had enough time to pull out of the lane the second tractor-trailer was entering, but the Greyhound driver, who was directly behind the first truck, didn't have time to move, she said.

"I saw the bus go into the back of the trailer and everything. It knocked me into the back of the seat and busted my head," said Kurtis Armstrong, who had a large bandage affixed to his forehead when he arrived in Dallas.

"I got on to get here because I had no choice, but I'm very nervous and shaken up still," Armstrong told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT. He was among those who continued on to Dallas in a second bus Greyhound sent to Colorado City after the crash.

"I've seen accidents before, but I've never seen anything like this," Pat Crow of P.J.'s Wrecker Service in Colorado City said in a story in Monday's Abilene Reporter-News. "It's amazing the driver was alive because he took a pretty good hit."

Huffman said Sunday morning's bus accident involved the largest number of injured people he could remember from any one accident that he has responded to over the years. He recalled a wreck "about 15 years ago" when a 15-passenger van was in a collision with a tractor-trailer along Interstate 20 just outside of Sweetwater and "five or six persons in the van died in that wreck."

Emergency medical personnel from the Sweetwater Fire Department, Roscoe Fire Department, Loraine Fire Department and the Mitchell County EMS were all dispatched to the scene, along with officers from the Sweetwater Police Department, Nolan County Sheriff's Office, Mitchell County Sheriff's Office and DPS in Nolan and Mitchell counties.

When emergency personnel first arrived on the scene, Huffman said, about 25 people who had been able to climb out of the bus windows were standing around outside the bus.

Mitchell County personnel set up a triage area outside the bus, while those from Sweetwater and Loraine began rescue efforts inside the bus. Roscoe personnel were in charge of fire control and assisted with the rescue efforts.

"We had two ambulances at the scene, but we did not transport anybody," Huffman said. "All the medical supplies from both our ambulances were depleted at the scene ... we used every bag of IV fluid we had on board and lots of splints, bandages and backboards. The number of injuries pushed us about to the end of our resources and we began running out of stuff (medical supplies) at the scene."

Due to the sturdy construction of the bus and the only entrance destroyed in the accident, Huffman said, rescue efforts were very difficult. "We even had to use a wrecker at the scene to pull part of the bus apart," Huffman said, "so rescue workers could have better access into the bus."

The bus, which was headed from Los Angeles to Dallas, is operated by Greyhound Lines Inc. The bus company brought in another bus to take passengers who wanted to continue the trip to a depot in Abilene, where they were allowed to transfer and continue on to their destinations, said Lynn Brown, the spokeswoman for the Dallas-based company.

Mitchell County Sheriff's deputy Darrell Campbell said road and weather conditions were clear at the time of the accident. Campbell said he did not have many details, but said that neither vehicle caught fire.

"Since nobody wears seat belts, except for the driver on a bus, it makes things more serious when a wreck does happen," Hale said.

Brown said seat belts are not a requirement on passenger buses.

"Current federal and state regulations don't mandate seat belt use because the current testing ... (shows) it is not likely to save more lives or even prevent serious injuries," she said.

Greyhound sent a crisis team, which was working with investigators at the scene, Brown said. She cited privacy laws in declining to release how long Johnson had driven for the company, which is the largest provider of intercity bus transportation.

"Our first priority is to make sure the victims and their families are taken care of," Brown said.

[Dog Gone]

Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock listed Phyllis Thorne, 102, in critical condition

Holy toledo, she's 102 years old and riding the bus on an interstate trip?

I would think a broken finger at that age would be a serious injury.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

The "other" accident that was referrenced in that article happened while we lived there - it was a van load of kids who had been on an overnight trip for a baseball tournament...... the driver possibly fell asleep and the van crashed. If I remember correctly 11 children died in that crash and the Highway Patrol, Sheriff's Department, Department of Public Safety, local Police, local Fire Department staff and even local Volunteer Firemen attended at the scene.......there were grown men sitting on the ground crying....... it was a horrible scene - then later, at the hospital, parents of these children (who were from Midland, Texas) were calling and arriving, only to be told their child had died.......... there was a lot of counseling needed for the folks there in town who had helped at the scene and at the hospital........

[Dog Gone]

I've lived in Midland and in Dallas, and I've driven this road many times travelling between the two. I know exactly where this took place.

It's not a particularly dangerous area, and there's no excuse for this bus driver. Weather was not a factor. He was tailgating and not paying attention.

It's very sad when people get killed on the road, and even more sad when there's no good explanation.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I agree with you completely ------flat road - no hidden curves or trecherous areas there........... I've driven it myself probably a hundred times..........