No injuries when Greyhound bus runs off Interstate 55

A routine bus trip from Memphis to St. Louis was delayed by an unscheduled layover Saturday in Cape Girardeau.

The Greyhound bus carrying 49 passengers ran off the road near exit 99 on Interstate 55 northbound. No injuries came of the accident, but passengers were taken to the Osage Community Centre, where they waited several hours for another bus to pick them up and finish the route to St. Louis.

Passengers waited from a little after noon to almost 6 p.m. for another bus to pick them up. Amanda Martin of Poplar Bluff, Mo., said passengers were repeatedly told bus after bus would be coming for them, only to find that wasn't the case.

"They keep stalling," Martin said about 4:45 p.m. as she and the others continued to wait. "We want to go, we want to leave. We've had one meal all day."

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. when the bus engine died while traveling on I-55 and the driver, who declined to talk to media, pulled the bus onto the shoulder of the road to avoid being hit by traffic, Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Carl Eakins said. The shoulder was too narrow and the wheels on the bus' right side went off the road and onto an incline, Eakins said. The bus began to tip but didn't roll over.

"We all shifted to one side of the bus," Ruby Mitchell of St. Louis said as she sat at the Osage Community Centre with Lilly Dixon-McKee of Baton Rouge. La., and Ashley Bailey of Moberly, Mo., awaiting another bus to pick them up. At the Osage Community Centre the passengers were fed and given water by the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.

Mitchell, Dixon-McKee and Bailey said the experience was frightening when the bus began to list and confusion struck passengers since the bus driver didn't issue quick instructions over the intercom.

"It created havoc," said Mitchell.

Passengers were evacuated though windows on the bus's left side to avoid tipping the bus onto its side, Eakins said.

Mitchell and Dixon-McKee said a few men on the bus took quick action to start evacuating the passengers, and they were assisted by truck drivers who saw the wreck before emergency personnel arrived. Among the men identified were Franklin Ollie of Kansas City, Mo., Brandon Matthews of Tupelo, Miss., Marque Boyd of Memphis and Joe Carter of St. Louis.

Ollie said there was little time to think, only to act. The four men said their primary concern was helping the elderly and children get off the bus quickly in case it tipped over.

It took more than an hour for the bus to be pulled from the scene. The bus was driven away after two wreckers were used to pull it back onto the road.

Traffic on I-55 northbound was reduced to one lane for some time before both lanes were closed while the bus was pulled onto the road. During that time, traffic backed up about two miles, Eakins said.

Mitchell and Dixon-McKee said the bus died three times before the accident.

Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark said the company's buses go through a rigorous inspection in the garage before they depart and another inspection by the driver.

"If anything alarms him, he has the right to pull it out of service and get a new bus," said Clark.

Clark said Greyhound buses also meet government safety regulations.

Clark didn't have information about the specific incident Saturday, but said Greyhound will investigate the matter internally and cooperate with any police investigations.

Eakins said police found no error on the part of the driver, only mechanical failure of the bus.

msanders@semissourian.com

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