Greyhound crash injures 12 in Oregon

COOS BAY, Ore. – Twelve people were injured, one of them critically, when a Greyhound bus crashed into a median signpost, state police said.

The bus, from San Francisco and heading for Portland, carried 23 passengers.

Driver James Scanlon, 67, of Ridgefield, Wash., was ejected from the bus and was pinned under it. He was listed in critical condition at Bay Area Hospital.

One other passenger was admitted to the hospital and was listed in serious condition. The others were treated and released.

Passenger Zorina Jordan, 35, of Coquille, said she was in the second row behind the driver when she was awakened by the sound of what sounded like a blowout.

“We were tossed,” she said. “There was a lot of dust. We had to step over the bus driver to get out. It was a nightmare.”

Passenger Dave Gallagher, 25, of Denver, boarded the bus in California and was heading to Portland. He said he was asleep near the rear of the bus.

“I woke up and I grabbed the seat,” he said. “It was shaking all around. Everything happened so quickly.”

The crash temporarily closed the northbound lanes of U.S. 101.

Oregon state police said the accident happened at about 6 a.m. at the intersection of Highway 101 and Oregon Highway 42 four miles south of Coos Bay.

They said the bus went into a ditch and struck a raised embankment.

A passer-by with a forklift got the bus off the injured driver, a police report said.

The accident happened a week before Greyhound had scheduled an end to service to Coos Bay-North Bend and 34 other Oregon towns and cities.