New Jersey man among 3 killed in Greyhound bus crash near St. Louis, coroner says
A New Jersey man has been identified as one of three people killed after a Greyhound bus slammed into a group of tractor-trailers parked along an exit ramp near St. Louis, a coroner said Thursday.
Juan Vasquez-Rodriguez, 34, of Passaic, N.J.; Buford Paya, 71, of Supai, Ariz.; and Bradley Donovan, 47, of Springfield, Ill. all died in the deadly collision earlier this week. Preliminary findings show the men died of blunt trauma, said Madison County Coroner Stephen Nonn.
Another 14 people were injured in the crash, including the bus driver, who was hospitalized in serious condition, according to a Facebook post by the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents Greyhound drivers.
The Greyhound bus was traveling from Indianapolis to St. Louis when the wreck occurred by the Silver Lake Rest area on Wednesday around 1:54 a.m. It was just miles away from its destination at the time.
Passenger Edwin Brown, 22, of Friars Point, Miss., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he felt the bus shake as it passed over rumble strips before the side of the vehicle suddenly “opened up like a can opener.”
The cause of the crash was unclear on Thursday and remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, an Illinois Republican, said an NTSB official told him the bus was equipped with monitoring cameras that investigators hope will offer some insights. Why the trucks were parked on the exit ramp is also “a part of this investigation,” NTSB board member Tom Chapman said.
With News Wire Services
