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| Breaking: 39 hurt in Greyhound bus accident in Wyoming |
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| 2006-02-19 |
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By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune
A Greyhound bus that left Salt Lake City early Sunday morning bound for Denver overturned in Wyoming, injuring 39 passengers.
The bus, with 43 people aboard, overturned about 3:30 a.m. on Interstate 80, about 23 miles east of Rawlins, Wyo., according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol said.
There were no fatalities, but nine of the injured will be hospitalized overnight or longer at Memorial Hospital of Carbon County in Rawlins, the highway patrol said in a press release. Two more passengers were taken by air to Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, and a third person is being taken there by ground ambulance. The extent of the injuries was not disclosed. Greyhound spokeswoman Anna Folmnsbee said the crash occurred after the bus made a stop in Rawlins and before a stop in Laramie.
The interstate was covered with snow and more snow was falling, according to the highway patrol. The driver, 51-year-old David Soraiz of Sandy, told the highway patrol he was blinded by blowing snow from a passing tractor-trailer.
The bus went off the left side of the road and into the median, the highway patrol said, and the driver overcorrected. The bus rolled onto the driver's side and came to a rest in the median with the front of the bus obstructing the left, eastbound lane. The highway patrol said Soraiz wasn't injured. His family in Sandy declined to comment Sunday.
The passengers included a 6-week-old infant and a 2-year-old, according to the highway patrol.
Folmnsbee said all of the passengers first were taken to the hospital in Rawlins. Two busses were dispatched to pick up the passengers and their belongings and take them on to Denver.
"As passengers are ready to go to their final destinations we're taking care of them," Folmnsbee said.
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