BALTIMORE — A school bus was blocks away from its first stop Tuesday morning when it hit a cemetery wall, rear-ended a car and then ricocheted off a roadside pillar into an oncoming commuter bus. The pre-dawn accident killed six people and injured 10, authorities said.
There were virtually no skid marks at the crash scene, suggesting no braking by the 67-year-old school bus driver, who was killed, and leading to what Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith called a working theory that he had suffered some sort of medical emergency.
The 33-year-old female driver of the Maryland Transit Administration bus also died at the scene, along with four of her 12 passengers, Smith said.
“This was a grueling and gruesome process of removing bodies,” he said.
The only other occupant of the school bus, an aide, suffered minor injuries, Smith said. The car driver also survived with minor injuries. All eight of the surviving commuter bus riders were hurt, two of them critically, he said.
All the victims were adults. Police hadn’t released their names Tuesday, pending notification of relatives.
Smith said an autopsy will help determine whether the school bus driver had any medical conditions that could have contributed to the crash.
He said investigators have recovered recording equipment from one of the buses that he believes contains video and possibly data evidence.
“We have to see the viability of it after this catastrophic accident,” Smith said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jennifer Morrison said her team has begun looking at the vehicles and crash scene. She said they will likely remain in Baltimore through the week, gathering facts to determine the cause of the crash and make safety recommendations.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said riders on the No. 10 MTA bus were likely going to work on a route from Dundalk, a largely blue-collar community southeast of Baltimore, toward Catonsville, a western suburb.
“They’re on their way to make a living, they’re on their way to the job, and they’re on their way to support their families,” Davis said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to them, to their families, to their co-workers as well.”
The school bus first hit the cemetery wall, then struck a Ford Mustang, crushing its rear and forcing its nose into the pavement. Then it hit a pillar at the cemetery entrance hundreds of feet down the street. Veering across the center line, the yellow school bus slammed into the front driver side of the MTA bus,
The school bus raked the side of the commuter bus, stopping with its front end buried in the left rear quarter of the MTA vehicle.
