37 injured when bus runs off road

Keith Paul

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 | 10:57 a.m.

A Greyhound bus on a cross-country trek to Los Angeles crashed down a 30-foot embankment this morning in Glendale, sending all 38 people on board to area hospitals and critically injuring at least four, including the 70-year-old driver.

The 55-passenger bus crashed through a guardrail about 3:20 a.m. on an exit ramp on southbound Interstate 15 near State Route 168.

The driver was in critical condition at University Medical Center. At least three passengers also were in critical condition at UMC and at other hospitals, officials said.

The driver, 70-year-old Jerry Davis, was apparently pulling off the interstate for a scheduled stop in Glendale, about 50 miles north of Las Vegas, when the bus ran off the road and flipped 1 1/2 times, landing on its left side on the embankment, police said.

"We are investigating to determine if the driver fell asleep or was not using due care and going too fast on the exit ramp," Trooper Alan Davidson, a Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman, said. "There were skid marks on the road before he went through the guardrail. He was trying to brake."

Some of the passengers said the driver had fallen asleep a couple times during the night and early morning hours.

The passengers became so concerned about the driver that they had a female passenger, who used to drive tractor-trailers, sit up to watch him, said Antonio Mosby, a 23-year-old Las Vegan who got on the bus at Grand Junction, Colo. Mosby just graduated from Mesa State College in Grand Junction.

Mosby, who was being treated at Valley Hospital, said the passengers had to wake the driver a couple of times, and he almost hit a rest-area sign outside Green River, Utah, about 11 p.m.

They asked the driver to stop and rest, despite the fact that they were running late, Mosby said.

They made a stop at Mesquite safely, he said, and proceeded toward Las Vegas. By then, the bus had gotten quiet.

Mosby said he got up to use the restroom, and as he got out of his seat, he thought he saw that the bus was headed for the guard rail.

He yelled, he said, "but it was just too late. There was nothing to be done."

Passengers said a pregnant woman went into labor after the accident and was flown to Sunrise Hospital, where officials said this morning she was in critical condition and the baby had not been born.

The bus left New York City on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at 10:30 a.m. today. The route had numerous stops along the way, including major cities such as Chicago and Denver, Kristin Parsley, a Greyhound spokeswoman said.

Davis has been driving buses for Greyhound since 1974. The bus involved in the crash was a new bus and didn't have any reported mechanical problems, Parsley said.

When the bus crashed and started to roll, the passengers were thrown around the interior because there are no seatbelts for passengers, Davidson said.

"We were tossed around like we were in a washing machine," said Chris Colella, 34, of Cape Cod., Mass., who was moving to Las Vegas. "When we landed, there was dark smoke all around, and another passenger pulled me out through the escape hatch. I then pulled out the girl who was in front of me, and it was like a chain reaction,."

Colella said he was one of the few people who was awake when the accident occurred. He was sitting in the back of the bus, two seats in front of the restroom.

"All the while, while we were rolling, I put my arms up to protect myself as best I could, waiting for the one impact that would do me in," Colella said, displaying scratches on his arm. "When it stopped and I was alive, I just couldn't believe it."

He said it sounded as if something crashed on top of the bus, but then he quickly realized that the bus was rolling down the embankment.

He said the bus was traveling at "average speed" when it failed to negotiate the off ramp.

Troopers are trying to determine how long Davis had been driving. Drivers are allowed to drive for eight hours before rest is required, Davidson said.

Troopers were searching the wreckage for the driver's log book, he said.

All of the passengers were injured, except a 5-year-old boy, Davidson said. The boy was taken to a hospital to be checked out before being reunited with his parents, who were being treated at another hospital.

In all the driver and nine passengers were taken to UMC, seven passengers to Lake Mead Hospital, six to Sunrise Hospital, two to Mountain View Hospital, five to Summerlin Hospital, three to Valley Hospital and five to Desert Springs Hospital, officials said.

Today's accident was the most serious passenger-bus accident locally since 41 people, mostly British tourists, were hurt Sept. 7, when a tour bus crashed near Tonopah.

The California Sun Lines bus, based in Chattsworth, Calif., was heading south on U.S. Highway 6 about 20 miles northwest of Tonopah when the driver apparently lost control of the bus. The driver apparently over corrected causing the bus to overturn and slide on its side for about 200 feet, police said.

Sun reporters

Jeffrey Libby, Timothy Pratt and Ed Koch contributed to this report.