Several people were hurt after a charter bus slammed into an overturned tractor-trailer on an icy road in Virginia.
The crash happened at about 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning on I-64 in Augusta County, Virginia. According to NBC 29, a tractor-trailer carrying mail was traveling east when it hit a patch of ice and overturned. A tour bus operated by Silver Linings Charters was not able to avoid the accident and hit the tractor-trailer.
“We check the weather conditions every day. This was not predicted for any of the weather models we saw,” said Virginia Department of Transportation official Joel DeNuzio.
Multiple fire departments responded to the scene of the accident, which they knew would be a mass casualty event. No one was killed in the crash, but at least 19 victims were injured and brought to area hospitals.
19 people have been hospitalized after a bus hit tractor-trailer at I-64 on early Sunday morning in Virginia. The crash occurred around 4:35 am. Out of 19, 15 were taken to the UVA Medical Center for treatment of injuries and 4 to Augusta Health. pic.twitter.com/HdU1nfWBEH
— Raven Tribune (@TheRavenTribune) November 18, 2019
David Nichols with Augusta County Fire-Rescue said it was difficult for first responders to reach the scene of the collision because of the unexpectedly icy and foggy road conditions.
“It was like watching a curling match because the responders had to shuffle along because of the road conditions. We had done have a couple of emergency vehicles that were stuck in the ice and could not maneuver, just because the road was so slippery,” he said.
After the initial collision, there were an additional seven other minor vehicle accidents on the same stretch of road. The cleanup from the main crash lasted into the afternoon.
The tour bus was traveling from Charles Town, West Virginia, to Charlottesville, Virginia.
Officials preemptively treated the roads with salt in the area around the crash Sunday evening in anticipation of more light rain that could turn to ice.
