Bus carrying a West Virginia high school girls' basketball team crashes leaving 14 people including 12 students injured
February 3, 2019 12:59 pm
A charter bus carrying a high school girls basketball team rolled over four times in West Virginia late on Saturday, requiring 14 on board to be hospitalized.
The bus was carrying a team of 12 students from Martinsburg High School along with several adults when it crashed Saturday night on a highway near Beckley.
The accident may have been caused by black ice, according to one of the senior players on the team.
Everyone has been medically cleared, including one student who was airlifted to a medical facility in Charleston, West Virginia, according to school officials.
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'Our team bus, carrying 14 passengers, slipped on black ice and flipped 4x down a hill,' senior point guard Deaira Hairston tweeted at 1.16am on Sunday.
'Everyone in the bus was able to walk away with non-life threatening injuries. If that’s not God I don’t know what is.'
The official cause of the crash remains unknown. The high temperature for the area on Saturday was 52F (11C) and the low was 24F (-4C), according to weather archive site Weather Underground.
No precipitation was recorded in the area on Saturday.
The team was leaving the Big Atlantic Classic tournament at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center, which is less than two miles from where the wreck occurred.
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At least two people were initially listed in critical condition, according to WOAY.
The first word that the student athletes and adults were OK came from Hairston at 11.17pm.
'Everyone from the team is doing well, no life threatening injuries. Please just keep us in your prayers as we all recover. #bulldogstrong,' she tweeted.
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By 12.30am on Sunday, 'all players transported to the Beckley area hospitals have been medically cleared including the player transported by air to Charleston, WV,' a statement shared by Martinsburg High School said.
'She and her coach are en route to the hotel to be reunited with the team,' the statement read, early on Sunday.
At 12.26am, coach Kyle Triggs tweeted: 'I just want to say thank you to all the prayers and well wishes...we are all doing ok! We appreciate the well wishes!! #BulldogStrong'
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No other vehicles were reported to be involved in the accident, which occurred at 8.49pm on Saturday.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice arranged for lodging for the players and adults overnight on Saturday.
The crash occurred on Interstate 64 where the highway converges with Interstate 77, near mile marker 124.
The closest exit is for state route 19, at Eisenhower Drive/Beckley.