5 Killed in Tragic Crash Near Jonesboro
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 437
Tags:
None
Just outside the small town of Bay, Arkansas a bus carrying 10 developmentally disabled people collided with a PT cruiser that was traveling the wrong way. The crash occurred on Highway 63, just south of Jonesboro, Arkansas on Wednesday. Five people, including the driver of the PT cruiser were killed.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the bus was owned and operated by a non-profit day center in Truman, Arkansas that serves disabled adults in Northeast Arkansas. Many responders, including the Craighead County Sheriff and Coroner, described the wreck to reporters as the worst they had ever seen.
Apparently, the PT cruiser was traveling south in the northbound lane at a high rate of speed when it collided with the bus. When it was struck, the bus flipped over and landed on an incline on the north side of Highway 63.
Two passengers in the nonprofit's bus, owned by the nonprofit organization Focus, Inc., died at the scene, along with the bus driver. Two passengers were flown by medical helicopter to Memphis; one passenger died during the flight.
Focus, Inc. has been in business since 1979 and helps those who suffer from developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and autism. According the organization's director, the passengers had just finished a class that teaches skills such as housekeeping, cleaning, and balancing a checkbook, and were going home.