MOORESBURG, PA : 16 people injured in 1-80 bus crash on Monday, 21st May 2018
Sixteen people, including students on a senior class trip headed to New York City, were injured at 5:45 a.m. Monday when a charter bus sheared off a pole and plunged down a 40-foot embankment near the Montour County rest area on Interstate 80.
A total of 32 people were on the bus driven by Gordon R. Ooten, of Defiance, Ohio, Tpr. Scott Carl reported. A Geisinger spokesman said the driver was among the injured. The bus was carrying students and adults from Jefferson High School in Delphos, Ohio, on a field trip.
A woman, originally in serious condition, was upgraded to fair condition Monday afternoon.
As of 1:45 p.m., 15 of the 16 who were injured were treated in Geisinger and released, said hospital spokesman Joseph Stender III.
Geisinger was housing all 28 students, ages 17 and 18 on its campus in an auditorium, Gryboski said.
“Their parents are expected to pick them up by tonight (Monday),” she said.
Gryboski, who was working with the students, said they were calm “and only a little bit sad they missed their trip.”
Stempka said they were headed to Times Square and to see a play after leaving Ohio Sunday evening.
In Carl’s report, he wrote the 2006 Childersmotor coach carrying 28 students and three chaperones left the south side of the road, sheared off a light post and crashed
down the embankment and near the Montour County rest stop, which closed because of the accident.
Ambulances from Danville, Bloomsburg, Millville, Elysburg, Sunbury and Berwick responded to the crash along with the Valley Township Fire Department.
Don’s Towing of Bloomsburg removed the bus.
Carl said the bus driver will be cited for failure to drive in a single lane.
Valley Township Fire Chief Mike Kull said the bus passengers were all standing on the road when the first emergency medical services unit arrived. The Valley and Liberty fire companies cleared the scene of the bus crash at 7 a.m. only to be called to another crash on 1-80 in Valley Township at about 9:30 a.m.
Gryboski said she got the call about the crash at 6 a.m.
“When emergency responders find out about an emergency more than normal to expect, they alert the ER,” she said.
For a mass casualty, a chain of command starts with leadership consulted to determine if Geisinger can handle it alone or if they need to call other resources, she said.“Sixteen patients — we can handle that,” she said.
With students involved, extra work was involved because they were from outside the state, needed to be fed meals, be entertained and Geisinger had to coordinate their releases to their parents, she said.
Despite some students being 18, she said they couldn’t release them on their own because they were on a school trip.
Geisinger's public relations and corporate communications departments had to be called, along with child life services specialties, she said. Food service workers were involved in providing them three meals Monday, she said.
The hospital’s internet technology department lent the students iPads for the afternoon.
Blow-up mattresses were provided to them where they were housed, she said.
With the crash occurring near 6 a.m., some night shift ER staff stayed over for the patients arriving around 6:30 a.m., she said. “At 6 a.m. Monday, it is usually pretty slow,” she said.
With day shift the largest shift in the ER, she said they didn’t need to call in extra staff.
Geisinger provided chaplain services to the students and therapy dogs were brought in Monday afternoon, she said.
Because the people on the bus were part of a school trip, they weren’t allowed to speak to the media, she said. “They are within our care and our supervision,” she said.
In the second crash on 1-80, Kull said a car traveled onto the median, the driver overcorrected and the car spun out, collided with a tractor-trailer and somehow another vehicle was involved. He said a car, a Jeep and a rig were in the accident with apparently one injury. A Danville ambulance also responded to that accident.
Source :
16 people injured in 1-80 bus crash