A total of 32 people, many of them high school students returning to the Lancaster County campus of a megachurch after a three-day retreat in southern New York, were injured when a tour bus crashed Sunday afternoon off Interstate 81 in northern Schuylkill County, state police said.
Emergency authorities declared a mass casualty event, drawing ambulances from a wide area, following the crash in Foster Township. None were from Berks County and Berks hospitals did not receive any injured.
The injured were taken by at least two-dozen ambulances to Geisinger Medical Center’s Shamokin and Danville campuses as well as Lehigh Valley Medical Center’s Pottsville campus, said Trooper David C. Beohm, Reading-based Troop L public information officer, on Monday.
Five of the victims were transported by medical helicopter, and three of them were in critical condition, Beohm said.
About 20 of the injured have been released from the hospitals.
Investigators said the bus driver, Adam Wright, 38, of Middletown, Dauphin County, lost control of the Premiere #1 Limousine bus for an unknown reason while traveling south on I-81 near the Hegins exit about 2:30 p.m.
The bus traveled through the exit ramp area, barreling through the median guide rail of Route 25 as it crossed that road before hitting an embankment and cutting a roughly 50-yard path in a wooded area before coming to rest, troopers said.
The bus occupants suffered various degrees of injuries. Wright was seriously hurt, troopers said.
Medical units from Schuylkill, Lebanon, Dauphin and Northumberland counties responded along with about 100 volunteers from seven Schuylkill County fire companies.
The bus was carrying ninth- and 10th-grade girls and volunteer leaders from LCBC’s Manheim Campus following the retreat at Lake Champion Camp in Glen Spey, N.Y., just over the state line northeast of Scranton, according to a message on the Lancaster County-based church’s website.
The group was heading back to Manheim when the crash occurred.
“Please join us in praying for those involved in the accident, their families and friends, our staff and our entire LCBC Family,” the statement concluded.
Beohm said the crash remains under investigation. Names of others hurt were not available.
Beohm asked anyone who witnessed the crash to call state police at the Frackville station, 570-874-5300.
Source: Berkshire mont
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