MANCHESTER, Tenn. (ap) — A Greyhound bus crashed Wednesday after a passenger attacked the driver, a witness said. Six of the 38 people aboard were killed, and Greyhound halted service nationwide as a precaution.
The bus crashed after a passenger slit the driver’s throat, a woman on board told a Nashville television station. Authorities said they could not confirm that, but a hospital official said the driver was treated for a laceration of the neck and was stable after surgery.
“We’re interviewing passengers and are not saying anything more until we’re sure what happened,” said Dana Keeton, Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman. FBI agents were among the investigators at the crash site.
U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said it was too early to tell if the accident was terrorist-related, but the agency didn’t believe so.
Dryden said the man who caused the crash survived, contradicting a report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department that he had died. Dryden said the man holds a Croatian identification card, although it was unclear if the ID was a passport.
Six were confirmed dead at the scene, and the 32 other people on board, including the driver, were injured, Keeton said. She said the injured were taken to at least four hospitals. The extent of the injuries was not immediately determined.
The driver, whose name was not released, was in stable condition after surgery and treatment for a neck laceration, said Bobby Couch, chief executive for Manchester Medical Center. He said he couldn’t comment on what caused the neck wound.
“How deep or how bad I don’t know,” he said.
The bus, No. 1115, was en route from Louisville, Ky., to Atlanta when it crashed at 4:15 a.m. CDT, Greyhound spokeswoman Karen Chapman said. The crash happened near Manchester, 50 miles southeast of Nashville on Interstate 24.
Speaking by cellular phone from the crash site, passenger Carly Rinearson told Nashville TV station WTVF that a man who appeared to be 30 to 35 years old kept approaching her front seat and asking what time it was. She said the man then asked if he could have her seat, and she refused.
Afterward, “he just went up to the bus driver and, like, slit his throat, and the driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over,” Rinearson said.
The bus left the eastbound lanes, crossed the median and the westbound lanes and turned over onto its left side. Authorities shut down the interstate and blocked off the scene with yellow police tape.
Dallas-based Greyhound stopped all service as a precaution after the crash, spokeswoman Kristin Parsley said. About 1,900 of its 2,300 buses had been on the road when the crash occurred, she said.
She said buses already en route were allowed to continue to their destinations.
Chapman said the company halted all its service “to see if the incident would impact the safety of passengers elsewhere.” She would not confirm an on-board attack or say why the crash might affect other buses. She did say, however, that nationwide service would not normally be halted after one accident.
Passengers across the country were inconvenienced by the loss of service, and many said they felt jittery after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“People are a little panicky about it,” Joi Smith, a Greyhound agent, said. “They are freaked out, which is understandable.”
Greyhound has set up a toll-free phone number for relatives seeking information about passengers 800-884-2744.
