Authorities are investigating a bus crash Saturday in Cincinnati in which a Greyhound bus went off the road, flipped twice, and landed in a cornfield, injuring 35 people.
Emergency management personnel said six people were flown to hospitals by helicopter, while 29 went by ambulance. Injuries were minor to severe, although
none appeared to be life-threatening, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
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Although authorities expect to release an accident report by the end of the week, a
passenger told WCPO-TV that the driver was slumped over the wheel. Christopher Lake said he heard a woman yell, “Wake up! Wake up,” but he thought the man might have had something wrong with his health.
Security cameras were on the bus and the video did capture images, the highway patrol told WCPO. The station said the Butler County dispatch center released 911 recordings.
“The bus is upside down,” said a woman on one recording. “And the bus driver is not coherent at all. We’re all bleeding. Please help us … and we can’t get the emergency doors open.”
The bus driver, Dwayne Garrett, 64, gave a voluntary blood sample. WCPO reported that to keep his commercial driver’s license, Garrett had to pass a physical exam every year that looked for any health conditions that might interfere with his driving.
A Greyhound spokesperson
told The Associated Press that the driver had been with the company for 15 years and had just come on shift an hour before.
Lake told WCPO that the driver seemed fine when he came on board the bus.
CBS Detroit reported that the bus was classified as a "mass casualty incident" and the pulled the Department of Transportation into the investigation. Greyhound personnel said the bus received its annual inspection just weeks before the crash.
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