Woman trapped in bus after head-on collision
L.K. Hewlett
Editor- SKNVibes.com
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – It was a horrific scene at West Farm just minutes ago when two passenger buses collided, creating mass casualties and had one woman trapped for close to an hour.
At around 10 a.m. police, fire services and paramedics rushed to the scene just outside of Basseterre after passenger buses HA 21 (Roughest) and H 8338 (Bashment) slammed head on into each other.
According to passengers on the both buses, H8338 was heading into Basseterre while HA21 was traveling in the opposite direction.
Both drivers escaped unhurt while ambulances made several trips transporting passengers to the J.N. F. Hospital.
As bedlam erupted around the accident that was heard from as far away as the medical schools, Carolyn Maynard of Ponds Estate, Newtown sat trapped in the front passenger seat of H8338..jpg)
Medical personnel from both the hospital and the International University of Nursing comforted the woman as she sat pinned in her seat asking for water at times.
Police and firemen tried in vain to separate the buses to rescue the woman. Luckily, Dale Hughes (owner of the Big Blue buses), a local auto repairman had gone to the scene, assessed the situation and went to Challengers to get the equipment that was used to pry the injured woman from the smashed bus.
~~Adz:Left~~Police officers contained the massive crowd of onlookers as firemen hitched the bus containing the trapped woman to the fire truck, to pull the bus away from the wreck so that the woman could be rescued.
After about twenty minutes of using a ‘Saws All’, Maynard was finally pulled from the wreckage and rushed to the hospital. Her boyfriend, who had received a call to the scene, told SKNVibes.com that she seemed ‘okay’ after they got her out of the bus and she was still conscious.
He said that although she was originally from Basseterre, she is now living in Old Road and was on her way to work when the tragedy occurred.
During the melee, the bus driver of HA 21 started threatening the other driver, rushing at him and had to be restrained by police officers and onlookers.
“I going mash you up boy! This ain done..I going mash you!” he shouted at the other driver who remained calm while talking on his cellular phone.
SKNVibes.com spoke with several passengers, even some who were injured and awaiting medical attention and most could not say how the accident happened.
It was ascertained that both buses were almost filled with passengers and some had jumped out of the windows after the accident. One man told this media house that the impact caused the main door of H8338 to be ripped from the vehicle. He also said he saw persons lying on the street who had to be lifted onto stretchers.
Both Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas and PAM leader Lindsay Grant along with former Police Commissioner Robert Jeffers were on the scene amongst the scores of firemen, police and medics.
Up until press time, it was not determined just how many persons were involved in the accident, transported to the hospital nor the severity of any of the injuries.
Police are still at the scene trying to determine the cause of the accident and could not confirm alleged witnesses’ statements that one bus had ‘overtaken another vehicle and collided with the oncoming bus’.
