Town Mourns Band Bus Crash Victims

(CBS/AP)  A high school band director known for making band fun was among five people killed when a busload of students and chaperones returning from a marching band competition crashed into an overturned tractor-trailer on Sunday, authorities said.

Band director Douglas Greenhalgh, 48, his wife Therese, 51, and their 11-year-old granddaughter, Morgan Greenhalgh, were killed, along with bus driver Paul Rasmus, 78, of Chippewa Falls, and Brandon Atherton, a 24-year-old student teacher, authorities said.

Twenty-nine others were injured, some seriously, troopers said.

"He was a really good teacher. We always had fun in his classroom," said Tania Richter, 17, a clarinet player who was sleeping on the floor toward the back of the bus when it crashed. "We're going to truly miss him."

The community held a candlelight vigil at the school Sunday night, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

Classes were resuming Monday, with counselors and pastors available for students who wanted to talk to them.

"We know it is not going to be a normal day. It is not going to be a normal week and, for some students, it will no longer be a normal year," Chippewa Falls school superintendent Michael Schoch said.

Shoch was riding on the third of the four buses.

"I don't know if you can ever prepare kids or parents or anyone for this kind of a tragedy and how to respond to it," Shoch told CBS News Early Show anchor René Syler.

The superintendent said at a news conference Monday before classes began that Greenhalgh had taught at the school more than 20 years.

"He has created a program that is second to none. He made, like most teachers do, lasting connections with kids. He will be hard to replace, impossible to replace," Schoch said.

The superintendent said a search will start almost immediately to find substitute teachers for the band program and a permanent replacement for Greenhalgh.

"It is going to be really hard for somebody to come in and fill those shoes," he said.

The accident occurred at around 2 a.m. Sunday when the bus crashed into an overturned semi truck, which had rolled over and jackknifed on Interstate 94, blocking both westbound lanes about five miles northwest of Osseo, said Capt. Douglas Notbohm of the Wisconsin State Patrol.

"I don't know how much opportunity there was for braking action," Notbohm said.

"I don't believe there was much time for the bus driver to react to a total, dynamic lane closure in front of him."

Schoch defended the 78-year-old driver, Paul Rasmus.

"He was very fit. And his age wouldn't have had anything to do with it," he said on The Early Show.

All of the windows on the bus were knocked out in the crash.

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