One dead, about 30 hurt in Lowcountry bus crash

By: Associated Press | SCNow
Published: November 19, 2007

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ A tour bus ran off Interstate 26 and into some trees early Monday, killing the driver and injuring about 30 passengers, authorities said.

One person was flown to the Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston, about 25 miles southeast of the crash, Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Robert Beres said. About 30 people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, officials said.

One passenger said the accident at about 1 a.m. happened so quickly she barely had time to collect her thoughts. "I didn't know what was going to happen," Pamela Underwood told WCSC-TV. "You're like, 'Wow, is the bus going to stop?' That was mostly what I was thinking."

The bus, operated by 5-Star Transportation based in Bonneau, was headed from St. Stephen to Miami. The wreck, on a rural stretch of highway, closed the interstate for about four hours. All the lanes were back open by 6 a.m., Beres said.

No other vehicles were involved, he said.

"It was a freak accident, we don't know what happened," Charlie Hill, a co-owner of the bus company, told WIS-TV in Columbia.

Trident Medical Center in North Charleston received 18 patients, hospital spokeswoman Julie Plummer said. One person was sent to intensive care and one person who suffered an eye injury was transferred to MUSC.

The rest were likely to be treated and released, she said.

"Minor cuts and bruises. I know there was one person with chest pains, not cardiac, just the accident itself," Plummer said.

A dozen people were taken to the hospital's Summerville facility. None of those injuries appeared to be serious, she said.

An accident reconstruction team of the Highway Patrol was investigating, he said.

One dead, about 30 hurt in Lowcountry bus crash

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