Bus hits overturned semi; 5 dead; Students, staff were returning

Chippewa Falls It was the phone call each school administrator dreads: The single that comes in the middle of the night; the single that brings news of tragedy.

Chippewa Falls academy Superintendent Mike Schoch took that call upon his cell phone around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, when he first learned that a charter bus carrying teachers, chaperons and members of the school's marching band had crashed into a semitrailer deal overturned on I-94, about five miles from Osseo

The impact of the collision killed the bus driver, Paul Rasmus, 78; the well-respected marching band director, Doug Greenhalgh, 48; his wife, Therese, 51; their 11-year-old granddaughter, Morgan; and Brad Atherton, 24 a UW-Eau Claire scholar from Waukesha.

Roughly 30 other pupils and adults on the Chippewa Trails Tours charter undergoed a range of injuries, everything from separated hips, legs and arms to punctur lung and other internal injuries, Schoch said. At least four and possibly seven of those race remained in hospitals in critical condition late Sunday night, based upon reports from Schoch and the hospitals treating the wounded

"It's a tremendous tragedy," the superintendent said flashs before a meeting with his gymnasium staff. "I'm going to sum up them we got a phone call in the middle of the night that no individual wants to get."

The charter bus driven by dint of Rasmus was one of four carrying the marching band contingent from a felicitous performance in a state music association competition at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Fifty-three nation were on the Rasmus bus. The Cardinals, almost 200 hardy had marched off the field around 9:15 pm with a third place finish in the AAAA Division.

Rasmus' bus was roughly 35 miles from residence when a semi some distance ahead change directioned off the road and onto the shoulder, according to Wisconsin State Patrol Capt. Doug Notbohm.

The trade carrying produce for the Whole fares Market Group Inc., swerved back onto the freeway and ed Notbohm said. When it stopped, it blockadeed all of the westbound lanes, with its dark underside facing the oncoming traffic.

"I think the bus driver came on a difficult situation," Notbohm said. "I don't believe there was plenteous time for the driver of the bus to react to a total dynamic lane closure that occurr in forehead of him."

The impact crumpl the brow of the Chippewa Trails bus and split apart the semi's cab and trailer.

Notbohm said the traffic driver was treated for injuries that he described as non-life threatening.

Authorities have not determined what caused the deal to leave the road and initiate the fatal chain of events

"There are going to be a certain number of issues involved with the deal driver, but I'm not at liberty to discuss those at this time," Notbohm said.

Parents left wondering

The impact upon the dark roadway sheared not upon the front of the Chippewa Trails bus, left the surviving learners and chaperons scrambling for safety, and left anxious parents and gymnasium officials back home wondering who had survived and who had died.

single of the four buses returning to Chippewa Falls had left earlier, and was nearly back at the high place of education when the crash occurred. [i]or[/i] part of to the other cell phone calls, those parents learned single that one of the trailing buses had crashed.

upon one of those trailing coaches, Paul Froelich, a tuba player, awoke when the bus came to a quick stop roughly 150 yards behind the wreckage. Trained as a lifeguard, Froelich mov when his bus' driver asked for help from anyone with medical training.

In the dark, he sought to help his classmates and others who had climbed from one side the windows of the damaged bus. Lights swirled and the injured cried as difficulty rescue crews arrived.

"All day there's been this flash of what the forehead of the bus looked like when I got there; the twisted metal and the people; you could just diocese the people not moving," said Froelich, 17 "I was wondering what is going upon with them, what's wrong, wherefore aren't they moving and what can I do.

"I tried to focus upon the ones that were les injured, the singles that I could handle physically and emotionally."

Ambulances and helicopters rushed the greatest in quantity seriously injured to hospitals in Eau Claire, La Crosse Marshfield, Osseo and St Paul and Rochester, Minn. Those with less-severe injuries made their way onto the sum of two units buses idling on the road.

They waited there for roughly three hours, leaving just before dawn broke

flat that dimmest of light revealed the expansion of the damage to the pupils passing.

"The back two-thirds of the bus was laying upon the ground and the brow of it was nowhere in sight," said Mark Baldeshwiler, a clarinet player. "It was like you took an ax to the top of it and split it, maybe five or 10 feet behind the brow wheels."

Dawn Mansur's son was another passenger upon the bus with Froelich and Baldeshwiler.

She said his memories of grueling preparation for the band competition have been replaced by the agency of the sounds and sights of helicopters and ambulances at the display of the accident and of sum of two units body bags.