Kenai, AK : Seafood company bus driven by a man who lost consciousness crashed into a tree, injuring seven of the 20 employees on board on Sunday August 17th 2014

A seafood company bus driven by a man who lost consciousness crashed into a tree Sunday, injuring seven of the 20 employees on board. The driver, Steven A. Battershall, 59, of Sterling, died at the scene, the Peninsula Clarion reported. Alaska State Troopers said he apparently died of natural causes. Troopers say the injuries to the employees were not life-threatening. The bus belonging to Snug Harbor Seafoods of Kenai was transporting employees to Anchorage. The Kenai Peninsula Central Emergency Services took a call on the crash at 6:45 a.m., and spokesman Brad Nelson said it took dispatchers a few minutes to determine where the crash occurred because the workers were not familiar with the area. Witnesses said Battershall lost consciousness and the northbound bus left the roadway at Mile 90 about 2 miles east of Soldotna. It traveled for a quarter-mile, up and over a gravel pile near Fellman Machinery and into a wooded area. The bus hit a large tree and stopped, Nelson said. "Then once we started responding out there, of course, we're expecting a bus on the highway wreck sort of thing," Nelson said. "No, it was way out in the trees. Luckily some of the people that were uninjured went up to the highway and flagged us down." The seven injured people were taken to Central Peninsula Hospital in Kenai. Source : Company bus with 20 passengers hits tree as driver loses consciousness, dies; 7 injured