UPDATE 12:28 a.m.: According to a news release provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, the name of the deceased driver is Rodney Dale Sigley, Jr. Sigley, who was driving an Acura CL, struck the rear end of the Lehigh Athletics bus and caused it to roll onto its roof.
The crash is still being investigated.
UPDATE 12:07 a.m.: All 18 students and the bus driver, Terry Wayne Johnson, have been discharged from the hospital, according to a tweet from the Lehigh University Dean of Students.
UPDATE 10:35 p.m.: Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said the one fatality was a 28-year-old man from Quakertown.
UPDATE 10:20 p.m.: Pennsylvania State Trooper Marc Allen confirmed the accident’s one fatality was the driver of the vehicle, and the driver was male. The identity of the individual has yet to be released, pending the notification of his parents and next of kin.
Allen said the injuries of all students on the bus are minor.
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A Lehigh Athletics bus carrying the university rowing team was involved in a major accident on U.S. Route 22 westbound en route to practice at 5:50 p.m. today.
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim was called to the scene for the reported death of the passenger of the car involved in the accident and confirmed one fatality. One student on the bus tweeted that “all Lehigh students are okay, but the guy who hit us is dead.”
Reagan Miller, ’18, was in a vehicle in the proximity of the accident when it occurred. She said first responders at the accident said the driver of the car was a woman and was avoiding being pulled over by police.
“What I had seen was a car was driving really fast and I saw cop car following, so I just thought that maybe the cop was trying to pull the car over,” Miller said.
Miller said the driver, the accident’s one fatality, was reportedly weaving through cars on the highway when the car hit the bus, which caused it to flip over.
Fire fighters stand at the scene of the Lehigh University bus accident on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. (Liz Cornell/ B&W Photo)
All 18 students on the bus have been transported to local hospitals, according to an email from Lehigh University Communications. No major student injuries or fatalities have been reported. Some of the injuries may include concussions, back and knee injuries, according to rowers who were on the bus.
Four student athletes were sent to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg, according to an emergency room employee at the hospital. She said an unknown number of trauma patients were sent to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest because it is the trauma hospital.
Bob Bruneio, the manager of Lehigh Transportation & Transit Services said the Lehigh Athletics bus driver is also at Cedar Crest.
The Brown and White reached out to rowing coach Brian Conley who said he could not give comment at this time. Several rowers who were on the bus also said they could not comment.
John Smeaton, vice provost of Student Affairs, confirmed he and other Lehigh representatives had reached out to the families of students involved in the accident, according to an email from Lori Friedman, the director of University Communications.
“He also made his staff available to families and assured them that Lehigh administrators would be making the medical and emotional well-being of their sons and daughters a top priority in the aftermath of the tragic event,” the email says.
Updates to come.
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