Bus Crash at Fort Mountain Leaves Three in Hospital

A bus crash that occurred on Cochise Trail in Chatsworth near Fort Mountain on Wednesday night and subsequently required assistance from Gilmer County authorities has left three people hospitalized.Those on board the bus were members of a Missouri youth group that had been to the Global Youth Ministry’s Fort Mountain Resort and were on their way back to St. Charles, Missouri. The bus had 24 passengers on board which was made up mostly of children.

Only three people remain hospitalized as of Friday morning: the bus driver, the front seat passenger, and the front seat passenger’s wife. The driver is currently being treated at Hamilton Medical Center for a broken leg and internal bleeding, along with the front seat passenger, who was ejected through the windshield of the bus upon impact and is being treated for a broken vertebrae, facial injuries, and lacerations on his arms. The front seat passenger’s wife is currently at Erlanger Hospital with a broken leg.

According to corporal Jack Lawrence of the GSP, the crash occurred when the bus was going down an incline and the driver missed the turn (possibly due to fog), causing the bus to hit a tree. Corporal Lawrence stated that it was in fact a good thing that the bus came into contact with the tree, because otherwise the bus would have rolled off of the mountain, leading to even more injuries.