MADISON COUNTY — Passengers described a chaotic and bloody scene Wednesday morning after a Greyhound bus bound for St. Louis crashed into three tractor-trailers parked on a ramp near a rest area in Madison County, killing three and injuring at least 14.
One rider said he was sleeping when the crash sent him sliding down the aisle and bloodied his nose, and he helped a pregnant woman escape through a window. Another said he woke up to the bus running over rumble strips, and he swallowed shards of glass during the crash. And another said after a brief stop in St. Louis, she still had to travel much of the country in a Greyhound to return home to Los Angeles.
The crash happened just before 2 a.m. on Interstate 70 West when a bus bound for St. Louis from Indianapolis hit three trucks on the shoulder of the Silver Lake rest area ramp bear Highland. The force of impact sheared off the right side of the bus.
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A damaged Greyhound bus is prepared for transport on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, from the scene of a fatal wreck on westbound Interstate 70 near Highland. Three people died and at least 14 were hurt after the bus hit tractor-trailers that were parked on a ramp leading to a rest stop.
In addition to the three unidentified people killed, 10 people were taken by helicopter to a hospital, and 10 were taken by ambulance. A spokesperson for Greyhound said about 30 people were on the bus.
Several passengers on the bus were still at the downtown St. Louis bus stop Wednesday afternoon, including some waiting on connecting buses.
Among them was Edward Alexander, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
“I thank God, for real,” Alexander said. “I really feel blessed. It could’ve been me.”
Edward Alexander of Pine Bluff, Ark., left, who was a passenger in the Greyhound bus crash in Highland, Ill., talks with a Greyhound security guard at the St. Louis bus station as he waits for another bus to get home on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. Alexander was working in Indianapolis and was headed home on a break from his job when the crash happened that killed three passengers.
Alexander was sleeping when the crash sent him sliding down the aisle and bloodied his nose. A pregnant woman near him was having trouble breathing, and Alexander helped her escape from the bus window.
Alexander searched for his cellphone on the mangled bus but jumped out the window when he saw it filling with smoke. He waited for hours at the crash site for another bus to take him to St. Louis. He said he lost all of his belongings but was glad to be alive.
The bus had been scheduled to arrive in St. Louis at 2:20 a.m. Trooper Josh Korando of the Illinois State Police said the truckers had pulled off onto the shoulder of the exit ramp to sleep, and the rest area’s truck parking lot was full. The Associated Press reported that it’s illegal in Illinois for trucks to park on exit ramps but that trucking industry experts said it’s a common practice when parking lots are full at rest areas and truck stops.
Edwin Brown, 22, of Friars Point, Mississippi, said he felt the bus hit 12 or 13 rumble strips on the side of the highway before the crash. He tried to fall back asleep anyway, hoping the bus would be in St. Louis by the time he woke up.
“When I woke up, like, I flew forward,” Brown said. “So then when I raised up, the side of the bus opened up like a can opener.”
Brown’s head hit a seat of the bus during the crash, he said, and he was still wearing a hospital band on his wrist just before noon Wednesday. He said he swallowed glass shards during the crash and cut up his fist. He received an electrocardiogram at Anderson Hospital in Maryville.
Brown said he was on the right-hand side of the bus, and he slipped through a gaping hole in the bus wall after the crash. He then helped others out, and with the help of a trucker, he said he turned the bus off. The driver was in and out of consciousness.
Dawanda Parker, 34, was also asleep before the crash. She woke up in the aisle, and a man helped her escape the bus through a window, she said. When the passengers escaped, they laid down in the grass, Parker said.
“I’m still thinking, ‘I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming,’” Parker said.
Parker is headed home to Los Angeles to see her four children and is still taking a bus the rest of the way.
Greyhound offered Parker money, she said, but she refused it.
According to a U.S. Department of Transportation report, the bus that crashed is part of a fleet that does business under Greyhound’s BoltBus division. That fleet includes 1,046 vehicles and 1,132 drivers, and it was involved in 69 crashes in the past two years.
Karen Miller, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents Greyhound drivers, said investigations will follow by the company and the Department of Transportation, and her main concern was “the well-being of the driver and passengers.”
Robert Cohen and Alex Vargas of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Officials survey a damaged tractor-trailer before removing it from the scene on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, on westbound Interstate 70 after it was hit by a Greyhound bus near Highland.
Workers clear debris from westbound Interstate 70 on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, after a Greyhound passenger bus hit tractor-trailers parked along a ramp leading to a rest stop near Highland.
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