UMaine Women's Basketball Bus Crash - UPDATED with Twitter Reaction from Players and Staff
Georgetown, Massachusetts -
A bus carrying the University of Maine women's basketball team was involved in a serious accident on Tuesday night.
The team was travelling south on Interstate 95 when the Cyr bus crossed the median and three northbound lanes, after the driver suffered a medical condition.
The bus went into a wooded area off the road in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
Police say Coach Richard Barron tried to take control of the wheel but was unable because the bus driver was slumped over it. Barron was being treated for minor facial lacerations.
One state police dispatcher says the driver's injuries are serious, but non-life threatening.
He was taken by life flight to a local hospital.
All 22 team members were brought to area hospitals, according to Mass State Police. Players Ashleigh Roberts and Corinne Wellington as well as the team's Director of Basketball Operations, Samantha Wheeler, were treated for injuries.
"The median is rather deep in the middle," says Major Arthur Sugrue with Massachussets State Police. "[The bus] did not roll over, it came up out of the median and crossed four lanes of traffic and went off the road and didn't strike any other vehicles and didn't roll over. It did strike a large tree and that's the damage you see on the bus. But very fortunate that only one person was injured seriously."
The team was scheduled to play Boston University on Wednesday night, that game has since been cancelled.
The team will play their final game of the season, this Saturday, at home against UNH.
"We're very thankful that this accident was not any worse than it was," says 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."
A state police car that stopped at the scene was also struck by another car.