An accident involving an Iowa State University CyRide bus carrying 19 passengers and a small compact car sent two individuals to Mary Greeley Medical Center. The incident occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Sixth Street and University Boulevard.
Sheri Kyras, CyRide transit director, said both the driver of the bus, Karen Goodman, a full-time CyRide employee, and the unidentified driver of the small white compact car, were transported to Mary Greeley. No passengers on the bus were sent to the hospital.
At press time, Irina Bassis, director of community relations with Mary Greeley Medical Center, said that information is not yet available regarding the condition of anyone involved in the accident.
Kyras said the cause of the accident has yet to be determined, but early reports from those on the scene help to paint a clearer picture of what may have transpired.
‘All we know right now was that it was a green route bus headed east-bound on Sixth Street, and there was a white car headed west-bound on the same street, and they collided,’ Kyras said. ‘We are still in the process of investigating exactly what went on, and we will be doing that for the next couple days by interviewing people who were on the bus and drivers, if we can. We will also be working with police to see exactly what went on and what we can do in the future.’
Kyras said that according to early reports, it appears that Goodman, the CyRide driver, was attempting to avoid the white compact car, which was drifting into the wrong lane. She said the conditions and cause of the accident are unknown at this time.
‘Preliminary discussions with the driver indicate that she was watching the road and saw the car slowly veer across the center lane, and she tried to avoid the accident,’ Kyras said. ‘And, talking with our supervisor on the scene, he said the bus tire was actually up on the curb trying to avoid the car. Again, it is all still under investigation, and we need to see what happened.’
Although Kyras said that no passengers of the bus were injured, she did note that after the accident, one passenger contacted CyRide to report that they later began to notice a headache.
Kyras added that CyRide has a good history of safe driving, saying, ‘The year before this, in the fiscal year of 2008, we had no accidents reported. Then this last year, we ended with five claims – which is a really good accident record, which is something we are pretty proud of.’
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