College bus collides with cows, power pole

Posted 1/17/17

“I have been traveling on buses for 40-plus years and have never had an experience like that,” Will Rider, Gillette College’s head women’s basketball coach, said Monday.

The team was on Wyo. Highway 30, between Burlington and Basin, and …

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College bus collides with cows, power pole

Posted

Gillette College women’s basketball team members escape serious injury

A bus driver and four members of the Gillette College women’s basketball team were transported to West Park Hospital in Cody Saturday night after the bus they were in collided with three cows and a power pole.

“I have been traveling on buses for 40-plus years and have never had an experience like that,” Will Rider, Gillette College’s head women’s basketball coach, said Monday.

The team was on Wyo. Highway 30, between Burlington and Basin, and they headed back to Gillette after an afternoon game against the Northwest College Trappers in Powell.

Rider said it was dark and the weather was overcast and foggy with snow flurries starting up.

“The bus driver had her lights on dim because of the fog and snow flurries, and we were going at the speed limit or slightly under, when right in the middle of the road — we didn’t even have time to blink — three (cows stood), right across the road,” Rider said. “Only the driver and my assistant coach looked up in time to see them. I was behind the driver, and I only heard the slamming of the brakes.”

After the bus hit the cows, its right-front end sheered into a nearby power pole, he said.

“Had (the bus) been turned just a bit more, it (the pole) would have caught the bus right in the middle,” he said. “I think the angels were pushing right on the back of the bus to keep us from coming around too hard — that, and the fact that it didn’t roll.”

As soon as the bus came to a stop, the driver called 911 for emergency medical services, and Rider and his assistant coach began an immediate assessment of the players. It appeared no one was hurt badly, but four players and the bus driver were experiencing back and muscle soreness. Emergency medical service crews from Basin and Burlington put the five injured women on backboards, took them off the bus through an emergency exit, then transported them to West Park Hospital, Rider said.

Meanwhile, Rider and the assistant coach called the men’s basketball coach to inform that team of the situation. The men had just finished their game against the Trappers and were eating dinner in Powell prior to departing for Gillette; the six uninjured women and the team’s belongings were loaded onto the men’s bus for the trip home.

Rider said the bus driver was very concerned about the injured players and kept asking about each girl until she was assured they were all OK. The worst injury had appeared to be a broken wrist, but it turned out to be a sprain.

“Until everything was clear, (the bus driver) didn’t really breathe a sigh of relief,” Rider said.

All the medical testing was complete by 2:30 a.m., and Rider, his assistant coach, the bus driver and the injured women went to a hotel to get some rest. Another bus from the college left Gillette Sunday morning, picked them up around noon and delivered them home by about 5:30 p.m., Rider said.

Rider praised the emergency medical teams who responded from Basin and Burlington.

“They were so professional and so good,” he said. “They got us transported to Cody, and the emergency staff at Cody hospital were very cooperative and informative. We just felt like we were cared for in a very special way.”

Gillette College Athletic Director Jenni Winter, who also praised the first responders, said she was “incredibly thankful” that everyone was in good condition.

Editor's note: This version corrects the location of the crash.

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