HARRISBURG (AP) — A bus carrying up to 50 people traveling from New York to Ohio crashed and struck another vehicle on a Pennsylvania highway, killing three passengersthe state police said.
The wreck happened around 11:50 p.m. Sunday during heavy rain on Interstate 81 just north of Harrisburg, state police said.
The bus went off the road, hit an embankment, rolled onto its right side and struck the back of a car stopped in the right lane, according to an accident report.
Three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene, the police report said, and others suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious.
RELATED: 2 of 3 dead in I-81 bus crash near Harrisburg identified by coroner
Matthew Oshiafi, a passenger on the Super Lucky Tour Company bus from Boston, told Pennlive.com that he remembered a terrible screeching and howling before the bus crashed and flipped over. He said he was in the last row.
Oshiafi, 39, a New York City resident who was on his way to Cincinnati to visit family, said the crash threw people from their seats and piled some on top of others. He heard people screaming and saw people around him seriously injured or unconscious.
Oshiafi said he saw a couple with a baby sitting nearby and noticed that the woman appeared to be unconscious and the man tried to help her. The man handed the baby over to Oshiafi, who said he passed the baby through the broken windshield of the bus to emergency services.
“I’m shaking,” he told the newspaper on Monday, about 10 hours after the crash. “I know people have died.”
A Milton S. Hershey Medical Center spokesperson said it has helped 28 patients ages 1 to 69 from the crash. Three were admitted, one in critical condition. Three others were evaluated and 22 were discharged. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Community Osteopathic treated 21 patients, of which 20 were treated and released; one adult remained hospitalized, the medical center said.
A Red Cross-run shelter at a nearby fire company closed late Monday after helping, feeding and emotionally supporting 23 adults and two children.
A Dauphin County spokesman said information about the people who died was not immediately available through the coroner’s office.
The name of the bus driver has not been released. Trooper Megan Frazer said Monday morning that police would not be able to release more details about the wreck until Tuesday.
Peter Chan, the bus company’s manager, said in a brief telephone interview on Monday that he was “deeply sorry to hear about the accident” but had no further information as he had been unable to speak to the driver, who was injured in the accident. the accident. crash and remains hospitalized.
