Feb. 07--No major injuries were reported in a bus crash that happened in Scott County early Wednesday morning.
Arkansas State Police, EMS and Y City volunteer firefighters arrived at U.S. 71 in Scott County, about four miles south of Y City, where a Jefferson Lines bus crashed into a wooded area at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, Y City Volunteer Fire Chief Albert Rogers said.
About 30 people were in the bus at the time, with seven taken to Mena Regional Health System for minor injuries, Rogers said.
"I don't believe it was anything life-threatening," Rogers said. "The bus driver probably had a broken ankle and one of them in the bus possibly had a broken leg."
Rogers said he was one of the first to respond, and when he arrived at the scene, several people were standing outside the bus with the injured still inside.
"It was just about a mile and a half from my house and I was there within five minutes after the call went off," Rogers said. "When I got there, they told me, 'You need to get on the bus, there's a lot of people hurt on the bus.'"
Volunteer firefighters removed the passengers quickly, but it took hours to get the bus out of the crash site, Rogers said.
Rogers said the bus driver told state police that he fell asleep at the wheel, causing it to crash into the wooded area. No other vehicles were involved, and no children were on the bus at the time of the accident, Rogers said.
The front of the bus was heavily damaged, and the front passenger-side door and windows were knocked out, Rogers said.
"If it hadn't been cedar trees -- if it had been oak trees -- it would've really been serious," Rogers said. "Cedar trees are soft enough it broke them off as it hit them."
The remaining uninjured passengers were taken to the Y City Volunteer Fire Department, where another Jefferson Lines bus picked them up.
The bus was traveling south as part of a scheduled line run between Kansas City and Texarkana, said Dan Ronan, senior director of communications with the American Bus Association.
"Jefferson Lines is cooperating fully with the authorities in Arkansas as they begin the investigation," Ronan said in a statement. "Jefferson Lines is doing all it can to assist those individuals who were hurt. We are also assisting the passengers who were not injured and will need transportation to Texarkana."
Copyright 2013 - Times Record, Fort Smith, Ark.
