BAY ST LOUIS (AP) – Eleven people were injured when a bus carrying university students blew a tyre and hit a concrete barrier in Mississippi, United States.
Mississippi state troopers said the driver and a student were critically injured and taken by helicopter to hospitals after the crash on Friday, while nine other students were taken by ambulance.
The 56 passengers were members of the university’s chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and their guests, who were travelling to New Orleans for an event.
Troopers said the driver, 55-year-old Tina Wilson, was travelling west on Interstate 10 near Bay St Louis when a tyre blew and the bus hit a centre concrete barrier.
Bay St Louis Police Chief Toby Schwartz said the bus careened away from the collision on two wheels before Wilson wrestled it back down onto all four wheels.
Schwartz told the Sun Herald of Biloxi that Wilson “took every piece of strength in her body to hold that steering wheel long enough to get it back down on the road”.
The windshield blew out, and Wilson was ejected when the bus hit the ground.
A student, Paul Clune, then ran up and grabbed the steering wheel, Schwartz said.
Clune tried to keep control until the bus skidded to a stop after nearly half a mile, WLOX-TV reported.
“If that bus had flipped, we would have had casualties,” Schwartz said.
