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Posted by
Gold_12TH
on Thu Aug 9 21:12:54 2012
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Slick roads during a thunderstorm played a role Wednesday night when a Kansas City Area Transportation Authority bus with 12 passengers flipped upside down and slid down an embankment in Platte County.
The accident sent 14 people to hospitals but only two were thought to have serious, though non-life-threatening, injuries. Kansas City Police Sgt. Bill Mahoney said the people on the bus were very fortunate, considering the extent of the damage.
There was a lot of broken glass, cuts and reports of a broken arm and a broken leg, among other injuries.
“People were just piled in there,” said Jesse Adams, a neighbor who saw the accident and rushed to help passengers get out of the overturned bus. “It was like someone took a salt shaker and shook it up.”
Adams said he helped a man and a girl who had been trapped underneath the man inside the wreckage. The Fire Department also had to extract two people.
The accident occurred just before 8 p.m. in the 5600 block of Northwest Prairie View Road.
Mahoney said the bus was headed south on Prairie View Road when a car pulled out in front of it from North Northwood Road. The driver of the bus turned hard to the right, and the bus clipped the car and flipped at least once as it went down the hill.
Adams, who lives on the corner and was taking his kids for treats at a convenience store across the street, said the passenger car was spinning its tires on the wet pavement trying to get out of the way of the bus. He said the swerving bus hit a curb that was just recently installed and became airborne.
The bus was not a full-sized ATA vehicle but a smaller, 25-foot one. It was left perpendicular to Prairie View Road, its undercarriage facing skyward. The metal exterior of one side of the bus was ripped off the frame, and pieces of the bus were strewn on the embankment.
Cynthia Baker, spokeswoman for the ATA, said the bus was on its regular route and was headed downtown. She said the operator was a veteran driver.
Mahoney said police had ruled out impairment on the part of either driver. The driver of the passenger car was taken to a hospital with minor injuries but two occupants of the car were not injured.
The bus driver was alert and able to talk to police before she was taken to a hospital.
Mark Huffer, general manager of the Kansas City ATA, said the accident will be thoroughly investigated by the transit authority, which is cooperating with police.
“Thankfully, there appear to be no life-threatening injuries,” Huffer said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our passengers and their families.”
--- http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/08/3752190/metro-bus-with-passengers-flips.html#storylink=cpy
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