GEORGETOWN, Mass. —
Members of the University of Maine women’s basketball team were transported to area hospitals after a bus carrying the squad veered across several lanes of I-95 and crashed into a wooded area.
Surprisingly, none of the players, coaches or staff in the 22-person traveling party were seriously injured although a player sustained a broken wrist and the coach had minor facial lacerations. The driver, who was trapped in the bus with serious injuries, had to be extricated by firefighters. A medical helicopter was summoned to fly him to a Boston hospital.
He may have suffered some a medical incident prior to the crash that left him unable to operate the vehicle, said those on the scene, which happened at a site north of Boston.
“We’re very thankful that this accident was not any worse than it was,” said Robert Dana, vice president for student affairs and dean of students at UMaine. “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.”
Dana said he was told by Coach Richard Barron, who suffered minor facial cuts, the coach even tried grabbing the steering wheel at one point.
More than an hour after the crash, numerous ambulances, firetrucks and emergency responders lined the highway as the bus remained lodged in the woods.
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Details for this story were provided by The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass., and the Newburypost, Mass., Daily News.
