Deadly bus crash kills pregnant coach, driver
Emergency and rescue crews respond to the scene of a tour bus crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike March 16, 2013, near Carlisle, Pa. / AP Photo/The Sentinel - Jason Malmont
Updated 9:05 PM ET
CARLISLE, Pa. A road trip by a college women's lacrosse team came to a horrifying end Saturday when the team bus veered off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and crashed into a tree, killing a pregnant coach, her unborn child and the driver and injuring numerous others.
Seton Hill University team players and coaches were among the 23 people aboard when the bus crashed just before 9 a.m. No other vehicle was involved, and police couldn't immediately say what caused the crash.
Kristina Quigley of Greensburg, 30, was flown to a hospital and died there from injuries from the crash, Cumberland County authorities said in a statement to news outlets, including CBS News. They say Quigley was about six months pregnant and her unborn child did not survive. The driver, 61-year-old Anthony Guaetta of Johnstown, died at the scene of the crash.
The other passengers were removed from the bus within an hour and taken to hospitals as a precaution. The crash appeared to have shorn away the front left side of the bus, which rested upright about 70 yards from the road at the bottom of a grassy slope.
The lacrosse team was headed to play Saturday afternoon at Millersville University, about 50 miles from the crash site in central Pennsylvania, for its fourth game of the year.
Both Saturday's game and a Sunday home game were canceled after the crash, and Seton Hill, a Catholic liberal arts school of about 2,500 students near Pittsburgh, said a memorial Mass was planned for Sunday night on campus.
Duquesne University women's lacrosse coach Mike Scerbo remembered Quigley as a warm, outgoing person who immediately impressed him when he hired her to be an assistant during the 2008 season.
Quigley, also a Duquesne alum, spent just one season under Scerbo before moving to South Carolina to start Erskine College's NCAA Division II program.
"In that time, I really saw how much passion she had to be a coach, and how much she enjoyed working with the kids," Scerbo said. "She was a teacher, and she wanted to help kids grow and learn, not just about the sport, but about life."
She spent three years at Erskine before taking the top job at Seton Hill for the 2012 season. She stayed in touch with Scerbo, often seeking his guidance and showing up at the Duquesne alumni game.
"She was a very happy person, very passionate about life, about her players, about her job and most importantly about her family," Scerbo said.
Quigley, a native of Baltimore, was married and had a young son, Gavin, the school said.
The bus operator, Mlaker Charter & Tours, of Davidsville, Pa., is up-to-date on its inspections, which include bus and driver safety checks, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utility Commission, which regulates bus companies.
The agency's motor safety inspectors could think of no accidents or violations involving the company that would raise a red flag, she said, though complete safety records weren't available Saturday.
On Tuesday, another bus carrying college lacrosse players from a Vermont team was hit by a sports car that spun out of control on a wet highway in upstate New York, sending the bus toppling onto its side, police said. One person in the car died.
And last month, a bus carrying 42 high school students from the Philadelphia area and their chaperones slammed into an overpass in Boston, injuring 35. Authorities said the driver had directed the bus onto a road with a height limit.
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car skids on pavement.
hits bus.
nothing about the passengers.
The lacrosse team was headed to play Saturday afternoon at Millersville University, about 50 miles from the crash site in central Pennsylvania, for its fourth game of the year. The Griffins were off to a promising start at 3-1 in the young season. Both Saturday's game and a Sunday home game were canceled after the crash, and Seton Hill, a Catholic school of about 2,500 students near Pittsburgh, said a memorial Mass was planned for Sunday night on campus.--"
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Terrible accident, and a pretty poor job of reporting on it.
Did the article mean to say, Seton "Hall"?
And golly, isn't it pretty clear from the photograph that there's no way the part of the bus badly torn, got that way as a result of what rescuers did. Doesn't anyone see the large trunk of the tree that is sandwiching the panel and windows between itself and the rest of the front of the bus that wasn't completely torn?
The picture portrays a pretty grim scene. I'm amazed there wasn't more people so far reported to have not made it. Look at the base of that tree. Talk about "shorn off".
Its's ok....I at first thought the same.
I mistakenly took the location of Seton Hall as being near Pittsburgh. I forgot where it actually is, and I was incorrect.
I still however did word the concern in question format, as I was still probably a little unsure myself as to whether I was missing something (when posting). But I did forget it is in NJ. I think I have thought of that school before as being in a place other than where it is.
My apologies to the author for my misconception. I guess that makes it less poorly put together, but the rest of my post stands firm, I think.