Dozens of children injured after charter bus overturns in Maryland
HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. -- A major accident involving an overturned charter bus on southbound I-95 in Maryland has shut down the roadway and injured at least 25 people, authorities say.
CBS Baltimore reports the crash occurred near Exit 89 in Havre de Grace in Harford County. State police transported an adult and a child, who were critically injured, by Medevac. An update on their conditions or their identities wasn't immediately known.
Other passengers were transported by paramedics to nearby hospitals.
State police say 26 eighth-graders, three chaperones and the bus driver were on board when the collision took place. The bus was transporting the group from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. for a field trip.
Video from the scene shows a person on a stretcher being wheeled away from the overturned bus to a waiting Medevac helicopter and other patients being carried to ambulances. There was damage to the hill and guardrail on the right side of the highway.
At least two other buses and cars were stopped near the overturned white bus with no apparent markings.
State Police say their preliminary investigation indicates that the bus and another vehicle had been traveling southbound in the middle of three interstate lanes. The driver of the other car attempted to pass the bus on the left by driving into the fast lane. As the driver entered the lane, he lost control of his vehicle for unknown reasons and drove off on the left side of the interstate, then returned to the travel portion, crossing all three lanes of traffic. The passenger vehicle clipped the front of the passenger bus as it crossed in front of it.
After being struck, the passenger bus traveled off the right side of the interstate, struck an embankment and then struck a tree, breaking the tree in half, before overturning onto its left side. The bus came to rest across the right and middle lanes of the interstate.
According to Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley, there was a bus southbound full of Philadelphia Police Academy cadets also on their way to D.C. for Police Week activities right behind the accident. They were able to stop and assist immediately after the crash.
The cadets were "a wonderful, wonderful help," Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps Chief Peter Quackenbush said. "They were assisting quite a bit in patient care and I believe they got everybody out."
At this time, no fatalities have been reported.
Philadelphia School District superintendent Dr. William R. Hite said at a 2 p.m. press conference that not all the parents of the students had been contacted at that time.
The school is setting up a "reunification site" at the school. They are arranging bus transportation for the students back to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney spoke at the same press conference, saying "I'm here to offer all the resources that we can offer from the city to the district to try to make this a smooth transition back."
Northbound I-95 between exits 89 and 93 will remain closed until further notice, authorities said. All other northbound lanes have reopened.
Motorists were advised to take 40, 7, or US-1 as alternate routes, CBS Baltimore reported.
