Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) at around 4:30, about 30 miles south of Rochester, where I live, a Canadian charter bus slammed into a tractor trailor parked at the side of the expressway, killing 4 people and fatally injuring many more. The death toll is said to rise. What I find most disturbing are the pictures. Imagine what must have happened to the people sitting in the front, right-hand side of the bus. The bus was carrying a young women's Canadian hockey team heading to a ski resort south of Rochester after playing a game in the city. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050129/NEWS01/50129004 Four dead, several injured in I-390 bus crash Corydon Ireland Staff writer (January 29, 2005) — GENESEO — Four people were killed Saturday when a Canadian charter bus carrying members of a young women’s hockey team smashed into a parked tractor trailer on Interstate 390, impaling the bus on the back of the rig. The 4:40 p.m. crash in this Livingston County town injured 20, some seriously. The truck driver, standing outside his vehicle at the time of the impact, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other three fatalities were passengers on the bus: a man, his son and a woman. State Police did not immediately release names of any of the victims. Mike Freeman, ice scheduler with the Sun Parlour Female Hockey Association in Canada, said none of the dead were players, though three of the four critically injured were. He said those killed were a father and his son and the mother of a player. The team, the Windsor Wildcats Intermediate BB, features players gages 18 to 21, most of them college students “just playing for fun,” said Freeman. There are eight teams in the 28-team league with the name “Windsor Wildcats,” and about 430 players. The Canadian team had played the Rochester Edge, a 19-and-under female team in Rochester Saturday morning, besting the American players by a score of 6-0. “We’re devastated,” said Freeman, who was in a Windsor arena when two coaches brought the news. “It’s too new, too quick.” No memorial service or other event is planned yet, he said. “We’re all in shock here actually,’’ said Sue Sheridan, a public relations official for the association. “This was supposed to be a fun trip for them.” The young women, just part of the playing squad, were on their way to the Swain Ski Center in Allegheny County, where they had pre-paid reservations. Some coaches and parents accompanied them on the chartered bus, while other players stayed back at a Rochester-area hotel. The bus was carrying 22 people and was southbound on I-390 when it slammed into the truck from the rear. The truck had pulled off the highway and onto the shoulder, beneath the Groveland Road overpass. A woman in the truck was among those injured. All of the injured were taken to Strong Memorial Hospital, some by Mercy Flight Central helicopters. State Police Maj. Steven White said late Saturday that troopers don’t know why the bus apparently swerved into the parked truck. The highway was dry and clear. At 9:30 p.m., investigators were trying to reconstruct the accident. Shortly after the crash, southbound traffic on I-390 was diverted onto Route 20A at Exit 8. The southbound section of the highway was closed between Exits 8 and 7 for hours, and had not been reopened by late Saturday. White said the driver of the bus, also hospitalized at Strong, was being watched by a state trooper so he does not leave the United States. “At this time no charges have been filed because the investigation is incomplete,” said Livingston County District Attorney Thomas Moran. “However, that doesn’t mean (the driver) is not a person of interest.” Moran said he had never seen a worse accident on Interstate 390. Jan Longacre, who lives a half mile from the accident scene, was on the overpass 20 minutes after the impact, digital camera in hand. “Not pretty pictures, I’ll tell you that,” he said by phone. Longacre could look directly down onto the scene, where the crash had “opened (the bus) up just like a tin can.” The bus had “impaled itself onto the back of the truck,” he said. One picture showed a truck axle assembly upside down in the snow and almost 100 yards from the impact. “I’ve seen accidents out there,” he said. “But this is absolutely the worst one.” Wes Kennison, supervisor of the town of Geneseo, agreed. “This is one people will remember for a while,” he said. The tractor trailer bore the name Xtra and was out of Mechanicsburg, Pa. Xtra Lease Inc. is one of the largest trailer rental and leasing companies in North America, with more than 90,000 trailers and 90 locations. The bus was operated by Coach Canada, whose Web site describes it as North America’s largest charter bus fleet, with 11,000 vehicles. “We have no comment at this time,” said a Coach Canada spokeswoman in Kingston, Ontario. Strong Memorial Hospital set up an emergency command center, the first time it had done so since the blackout of August 2003. The first of the injured arrived there at 6 p.m., and casualties were still arriving after 8. They were transported from the accident site, about 30 miles away, by Mercy Flight helicopters and ambulances. Soon after the accident, at least seven ambulances converged on the scene and helicopters hovered in the air. Mercy Flight officials said they dispatched four copters. Hospital spokeswoman Leslie Orr said that four or five of the injured were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in guarded condition. Several others were admitted to the hospital with less serious injuries, and the rest were expected to be treated for minor injuries and released, she said. Strong went to a “code red” status and called in 40 staff members, including doctors, pharmacists and social workers. Under code red, the hospital diverts all other emergency cases to other area hospitals. Strong practices handling such mass casualty situations twice a year, said spokeswoman Germaine Reinhardt. The last time it had to deal with an incident of this magnitude was a June 2002 bus crash in Victor, Ontario County. That crash, which killed five people and injured 50, occurred when a chartered bus careened off the state Thruway. MLAVAN@DemocratandChronicle.com MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com CIRELAND@DemocratandChronicle.com Includes reporting by staff writer Cynthia Benjamin
Unfortunate. This forum would run out of webspace if I were to actually post of every death that occurs close to where I live.
Oh my god. That picture... you're right, but "disturbing" is too mild a word for it. How sad. -Jeffrey
Yeah, I hear that, Pavel. I am not posting this because of the loss of life (as unfortunate as it is) as much as I am the crash itself. It literally split the bus in half. I mean, damn!
Looking at that picture, I can't imagine how the cubic frame of that truck does not appear to be mangled even at all. I always thought that the trailer rears of such trucks were not that substantial... -Jeffrey
that is pretty bad........ but did you also hear about the hispanic man who parked his suv on the train tracks because he was trying to committ suicide?? he jumped out before the train hit his vehicle, but the train derailed and killed about 10 people on the train?? the guy is going to be tried for murder, and they have him on suicide watch in jail.
Yeah... they keep saying they're going to try and give him the death sentence.... so, if the dumbass had any sense he would have stayed in the car....
I used to be a firefighter and worked many wrecks on I-95, but I've never seen anything like that. I am amazed no more people are dead.
