Twelve people have been injured after a Greyhound bus carrying people to a Catholic church event crashed into a flatbed truck on Interstate 90 in McKean Township on Thursday, said local authorities.
The accident occurred on Thursday morning at approximately 7am, in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90. The Greyhound bus, which was transporting the church group to New York for a social event, drove into the back of a flatbed truck around two miles to the west of the Interstate 79 interchange. Twelve people were injured in the accident, including the bus driver.
The injured passengers were attended to on the scene by paramedics after a 911 call was made from other motorists. The injured were then transported by ambulance to UPMC Hamot where they are being treated for minor injuries.
According to a spokesperson from Greyhound, the bus had left Cleaveland at 5am with 26 passengers on board, and made one stop before the accident occurred.
The bus driver was later identified as Mr. Mark Harris, 48, who hails from Shaker Heights, Ohio. Mr. Harris has been taken into police custody and is being questioned on charges of careless driving, said police officials. A spokesperson from UPMC Hamot said that Harris sustained only minor injuries and has already been released from hospital.
According to the police reports, the flatbed truck was a 1991 International Harvester operated by an Ohio firm. The truck was transporting building materials, and was travelling in the eastbound lane of the I-90 at around 50mph when the Greyhound bus hit into the back of the truck. According to reports, the bus was travelling at around 65mph at the time. The driver of the flatbed truck, Jason Miller, 24 of Baltic, Ohio, was not injured.
The bus spun off the road following the collision, coming to rest in a ditch on the side of the road, while the flatbed was pushed in the eastbound direction for a number of yards before coming to a halt on the southern side of the highway.
Harris, as well as some of the other injured passengers, were trapped in the wreckage of the bus. Firefighters and rescue personnel from the West Ridge Fire Department took over an hour to free Harris from the wreckage.
The I-90 eastbound lane was closed for three hours following the accident, while officials cleared the scene and attended to the injured. The road was reopened at around 11am.