(UPDATED) University of Maine basketball team involved in Mass. bus crash
Several members of the University of Maine women’s basketball team were hurt Tuesday night when the team’s bus swerved off Interstate 95 and crashed in Georgetown, Mass.
Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio says the bus was traveling south around 8:30 p.m. when it drove off the road, crossed a grass median and four lanes of northbound traffic, and came to a stop in a wooded area down an embankment.
The driver, 55-year-old Jeffrey Hamlin, remains hospitalized at Boston Medical Center with serious injuries. Authorities think he suffered a medical emergency just before the crash.
All passengers were taken to local hospitals for evaluation. The most serious injuries were suffered by freshman guard Milica Mitrovic, who broke her hand, and head coach Richard Barron, who has facial lacerations. Some passengers climbed out the bus’s windows to escape from the wreckage.
“We’re very thankful that this accident was not any worse than it was,” Dean of Students Robert Dana said in a statement on the school’s website. “The thoughts of the entire University of Maine community are with the bus driver and the team as they contend with this very frightening event.”
The team was on its way to south to play Boston University Wednesday night. The game has been canceled.
Investigators plan to examine the bus’s black box recorder, but tell the Boston Globe they don’t expect to file charges, and that it doesn’t appear that drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.
The bus is owned by Cyr Bus Lines, based in Old Town, Maine. The company has been in business since 1912.
The accident took place the same day that the federal Department of Transportation ordered the Fung Wah bus company to cease all operations, due to safety concerns.
Earlier this month, 35 high school students from Philadelphia and their chaperones were hurt when their chartered bus hit an overpass on Soldiers Field Road in Allston.
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