No Serious Injuries In I-55 Bus Crash

Northbound traffic was slowed to a crawl as vehicles were diverted up the exit ramp and then down the entrance ramp at Enid.

Emergency medical personnel carried one woman to a waiting ambulance as other passengers were treated.

One young passenger walked away after taking a photo of the wrecked bus with his phone.

Onlookers viewed the crash scene from the Enid exit bridge.

A passenger takes a photo of the wrecked bus.

Troopers from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol walk the approximately 600 foot path taken by the bus after it left the southbound lane.

ENID LAKE – A tour bus loaded with young people and their chaperones ran off I-55 just north of the Enid exit around 3:45 p.m. Friday.
The southbound bus ran through the median and into northbound lane, hit the guardrail and struck two vehicles before coming to rest on the edge of the road south of Exit 233.
The group of about 60 people from First Pentecostal Church in North Little Rock, Ark., escaped with only minor injuries, according to officials. Occupants of the other vehicles also appeared to have only  minor injuries.
Yalobusha County emergency responders were summoned to the crash site by frantic 911 calls that reported the bus had hit a bridge. Firefighters from Oakland and Tillatoba along with Yalobusha Emergency Medical Services were on the scene within minutes.
A Yalobusha Sheriff’s Deputy was one of the first to arrive and radioed that there appeared to be no serious injuries.
One woman was placed on spineboard and transported by ambulance, but she was alert and talking with medical personnel and an investigator from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol.
Regina Matlock, a chaperone and wife of the bus driver, said she got out of the bus and thanked the Lord that no one was hurt. The group was headed to Jayees, Miss., in the southern part of the state, she said.
Many of the young passengers talked and texted on their cell phones while others took pictures of the wrecked bus. A few were comforting each other. Later, the passengers boarded a school bus from the South Panola School District to be transported to a staging area to await another charter bus.
Northbound traffic slowed to a crawl as vehicles were diverted onto the exit ramp to bypass the crash scene.
Some of the emergency responders were called away from the bus crash just before 5 p.m. to a natural gas leak in the 7000 block of County Road 211. Sheriff’s deputies set up road blocks to divert traffic after a backhoe struck a gas distribution line near a residence.
A gas company representative was able to cut the flow of gas, ending the threat around 5:40 p.m.

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