Police Say Other Driver To Be Cited In I-70 Tour Bus Crash
WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA/AP) - State police say the driver of a sport-utility vehicle will be cited for sideswiping a chartered tour bus that overturned on Interstate 70 in western Pennsylvania.
The driver of the Honda CR-V, Killian Duncan, of Wayne, wasn't hurt in the crash about 4:30 a.m. Sunday in Canton Township, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.
Duncan doesn't have a listed phone.
"The tour bus was in the right lane, the Honda CR-V was in the left lane of the Interstate. The Honda CR-V veered from the left lane into the right lane, striking the tour bus, causing the bus to lose control and tip onto its side," said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Matthew Jardine.
The bus traveling from New York to Columbus, Ohio, is owned by Hermes Luxury Coach of Durham, North Carolina.
The company's president, Alan Li, says he agrees with the police assessment so far. Li says it's fortunate the bus tipped over on a ramp where both vehicles were traveling at relatively low speeds.
The bus driver was thrown through the windshield and in fair condition at a Pittsburgh hospital.
All 23 passengers were treated for minor injuries. Seventeen were hospitalized.
"Luckily, fortunately for all of us, they were all minor injuries," said Washington Hospital Dr. Amarkith Mally. "Bruises and bumps and cuts which we had to stitch, nothing life-threatening."
The company had another bus to take passengers to Columbus.
KDKA-TV's Lynne Hayes-Freeland spoke to one of the passengers.
"I actually thought I was going to die," she said.
Marianna Bruno of Columbus, Ohio, was one of the 17 passengers who were hospitalized.
"I thought I was going to die, number one, when I saw the bus driver going out of the window, and I knew the bus had gotten out of control, and I could see fire," Bruno said.
Bruno heard the car hit the bus.
"I was clinging, almost hanging like Batwoman, as the bus circled around," she said.
"The bus kept swinging around and all of a sudden, boom, the bus stops," she added. "All the windows were shattered. People were under the chairs."
Bruno believes the bus driver did everything he could to keep the passengers safe. But once he was ejected through the windshield, they were on their own.
"I just tried to tell everybody to run, run, run, the bus is leaking gas," she said. "The bus could blow up at any minute."
Bruno was still at Canonsburg Hospital Monday afternoon, and she is unsure exactly when she will be released. The driver of the bus will also be cited for not wearing a seatbelt.
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