Boy, 3 others killed in football team bus crash in North Carolina
Boy, 3 others killed in football team bus crash in North Carolina : ROCK HILL, North Carolina — A bus carrying a college football team lost control after a front tire blew out, crashing into a guardrail and bridge column and killing four people, including the young son one of the team’s coaches.
Killed in the crash were the crash were the driver, Brian Andre Kirkpatrick, 43; Devonte Gibson, 21, and Tito Hamilton, 19, both Clinton College students; and Darice Lamont Hicks Jr., 8, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Another 42 people were injured in the crash, and several remained hospitalized on Saturday, eight in serious condition, wbtv.com reports.
“I’ve been doing this job for 23 years now. I’ve seen my share, and this is one of the worst, especially when you have a group of students, young people just starting their lives, going to a football game,” North Carolina State Patrol Lt. Jeff Gordon tells wbtv.com.
The bus with the Clinton College football team was carrying 46 people east on the U.S. 74 bypass at about 2:30 p.m. when the crash occurred. The left-front tire blew out, causing the bus to veer into the median.
The bus struck a guardrail, then sideswiped a concrete bridge column, the Observer reports.
Quarterback Rayqwon Corbitt-Washington tells CBS News he was sitting the back of the bus when the crash occurred.
“As soon as it stopped we just jumped outside the window … that’s when the paramedics came and all that, and that’s when they were calling my friend Teto,” Corbitt-Washington said. “I was calling his name and I was like ‘What’s going on?’ and I went to the other side and he was dead.”
Another player, Tyreak Thompson, tells wbtv.com says he was half-asleep at the time of the crash. Thompson was treated and released at a hospital.
“I’m still a little traumatized about it,” Thompson said. “It’s hard, and I’m fine. I feel sad for all of the other players and hope they’ll be OK.”
Both lanes of U.S. 74 were closed for nearly 10 hours after the crash, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Classes have been canceled for Monday at Clinton College, the Observer reports.
“We will need your help and your assistance,” Rev. Maurice Harden of New Mount Olivet AME Zion Church, which is located near the school’s campus in Rock Hill, tells the Observer. “This is a time when so many people are hurting, and what we all can do is pray for them, and also act for them in any way they need. We need the community to lift us all up through prayers.”
Source : http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2016/09/boy_3_others_killed_in_footbal.html
