ATLANTA — Dozens of people were sent to the hospital Tuesday morning after a Megabus flipped over on an Indiana Interstate.
The Megabus left from the Civic Center Marta station Monday afternoon. It was supposed to arrive in Chicago Tuesday morning. Instead the bus hit a stopped vehicle and crashed.
Channel 2’s Jessica Jaglois spoke with a passenger who captured video after the Megabus flipped several times before landing on its side.
“All of a sudden, I hear the window being broken and a police officer is then coming to tend to that lady who was face down. I went over that way and he asked if I was OK and I said, ‘Yeah, take care of her,” Craig Steichen said.
Steichen says a woman was trapped, and that her hand was pinned between the bus and the ground.
He said, “She wasn’t really screaming. She was in pain, but I think she might have been in shock (because) she was just like, ‘My hand, my hand.’”
That woman was one of 17 people injured on the Megabus. Indiana State police said the bus hit a stopped car outside of Indianapolis after 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The bus was forced into the cable barriers on the side of I-65 North, which caused the massive vehicle to flip.
Steichen says he was asleep at the time, but he woke up to the crash and then the feeling of being suspended in the air.
“I was just spinning around and not knowing what was going to end up happening,” he said.
All injuries were minor with mostly cuts and bruises and a broken arm.
No one has been charged, but law enforcement says, that could change.
Jaglois looked up the company’s safety records for the Megabus and found that, in the past two years, Megabus has reported 15 crashes and received 177 violations.
Megabus forwarded a statement about Tuesday morning’s crash:
"Our first thoughts and best wishes are with everyone involved. We will be providing assistance and support for all of our customers involved in this incident."