Fourteen passengers from a Coach USA bus were sent to four hospitals after the bus rolled onto its side on the Boulder Turnpike during a slippery rush hour Friday morning.
“Kids were screaming and crying, and parents were trying to hold onto their kids,” said Scott Donaldson, 23, of Kissimmee, Fla., a passenger on the Coach USA bus bound from Denver to Cheyenne.
Passengers smelled gas, he said, and wanted out of the bus fast, fearing it could explode.
“It was just pure chaos and panic,” Donaldson said.
The bus tipped over onto the driver’s side, closing the westbound lanes of U.S. 36 between Federal and Sheridan boulevards. Traffic was diverted off the highway at Federal Boulevard until the highway was reopened about noon.
The bus had at least 27 people on board, including the driver, according to Westminster police spokesman Tim Read. No one was critically injured, Read said, but passengers were triaged and, in some case, placed in neck braces and on backboards as a precaution. He said 10 ambulances took 14 passengers to four different hospitals. No one died in the accident.
“There were people who were walking dazed,” Read said.
Emergency workers tried to help the passengers who appeared to be in shock get oriented and calm down, he said.
The accident happened just before 9 a.m. Passengers on the bus said the driver swerved to avoid a UPS truck that stopped abruptly in front of the bus.
“It was not the (bus) driver’s fault at all,” said Donaldson, who had a scraped chin.
The UPS truck, a box truck and a car also crashed, Read said. The driver of the UPS truck was taken to a hospital. The driver’s condition was not known.
Bus passenger Johnathon Adams, 23, of Dallas said that after the crash, children were carried quickly off the bus without shoes or socks. Adams was not injured.
“Kids without jackets were crying,” Adams said.
Read said although it was considered a weather-related accident, there was no snow or ice on the highway. Oil on the highway may have made it slick, he said.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, he said. Authorities were interviewing drivers and passengers of all the vehicles involved, he said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
