Bus Accidents New Jersey

The bus crash Thursday that injured 12 members of the Angels apparently was the first serious travel accident involving a major pro sports team in the United States. However, there have been several fatal plane and bus accidents involving college and other amateur teams. NFL, NBA, NHL and major league baseball officials could not recall any serious team crashes in their sports.

A bus carrying senior citizens to an Atlantic City casino collided with two vehicles on a highway, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. The bus hit a car and pickup, then skidded off the shoulder of New Jersey Route 42. The car was split in half. The two dead were riding in the car, State Police spokesman John Hagerty said. Witnesses told troopers the car appeared to be racing another car before overturning and crossing the median into the bus' path.

It is a quarter to two, Thursday morning on the East Coast, and alongside a lonely stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, a bus carrying 18 members of the Angels' traveling party is lying on its side, 300 feet from a mangled guardrail that failed. Soon, police sirens sound. Ambulances arrive. The bus windshield is smashed in order to extricate the team's manager, Buck Rodgers, who has suffered a fractured elbow, kneecap and rib. Around him, traveling secretary Frank Sims has a cracked rib cage.

Federal safety experts investigating the Christmas Eve 1998 crash of a bus in Sayreville, N.J., found six mechanical problems, any of which would have kept it off the road. The bus taking 23 people from New York to Atlantic City skidded off the snowy Garden State Parkway and flipped, killing eight passengers and injuring 16. Days before the crash, the bus had a routine inspection by New York authorities.

Angel Manager Buck Rodgers suffered a broken right elbow, right rib and left knee early Thursday when one of two buses carrying the team from New York to Baltimore swerved off the road and into a grove of trees along the New Jersey Turnpike in Deptford Township, N.J., about 20 miles from Philadelphia.

Despite intense pain from a broken rib, kneecap and elbow, Angel Manager Buck Rodgers discussed potential lineups and strategies with third base coach John Wathan, who will manage the team while Rodgers recovers from the injuries he suffered in Thursday's early morning bus crash. Wathan will assume his duties as interim manager today, when the Angels open a three-game series at the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Federal safety experts investigating the Christmas Eve 1998 crash of a bus in Sayreville, N.J., found six mechanical problems, any of which would have kept it off the road. The bus taking 23 people from New York to Atlantic City skidded off the snowy Garden State Parkway and flipped, killing eight passengers and injuring 16. Days before the crash, the bus had a routine inspection by New York authorities.

Reliever Bryan Harvey will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow Friday to determine the cause of pain and tightness that has twice put him on the disabled list. The exploratory procedure will be performed by team orthopedist Lewis Yocum at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood. "He hasn't responded to what we've done so far, so this is the next logical step," Yocum said. "We'll scope it and fix it if we can. He doesn't want any more than (an arthroscopic procedure).

Traveling secretary Frank Sims, who suffered broken ribs and a bruised kidney in the May 21 bus accident, is in the process of taking legal action against the bus company, Konner Bus Lines of Pine Brook, N.J. . . . The Edmonton City Council approved construction of a stadium for the Angels' triple-A farm team, to begin in the fall of 1993. Costs will be shared by the city and the Trappers. . . .

Shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday, Gene Autry was listening to a radio station he owns, KMPC, when he learned that the baseball team he owns, the Angels, had been involved in a bus accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. "He sleeps with the radio plugged in his ear. It puts him to sleep," said Jackie Autry, Gene's wife and the executive vice president of the club. "I called the radio station to find out what they knew." Angel officials apparently had decided to contact the team owners in the morning.

For the fourth time since Christmas Eve, a casino-bound bus has been involved in a crash on a New Jersey highway. No one on the bus was injured in Saturday's multi-vehicle accident on the Garden State Parkway, and police said the bus continued on its trip to Atlantic City. A 13-year-old boy riding in another vehicle was in critical condition after icy weather caused the pileup. He was taken by ambulance to Jersey Shore Medical Center.

Federal investigators found no early evidence Monday that mechanical failure caused a bus to run off the Garden State Parkway, killing eight people on Christmas Eve. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies began examining the wrecked Bruins Transportation bus. Robert Accetta of the NTSB said a check of the tires and braking systems found no defects. The driver, Val Viner, told investigators he was trying to avoid an icy patch on the highway.

The driver of a bus that ran off a highway during a gambling junket to Atlantic City, killing eight passengers, told investigators that the vehicle spun when he tried to avoid an icy patch in the road. The driver, 52-year-old Valerie Viner, has a checkered driving record, and his license was suspended twice before the accident Thursday on the Garden State Parkway. Viner told investigators that he saw an icy patch and was blocked from changing lanes, so he braked.

A bus taking 23 people from New York to Atlantic City, N.J., on a Christmas Eve gambling junket skidded off a highway and flipped over Thursday, killing eight passengers. The tour bus plunged about 20 feet down a slushy embankment along the Garden State Parkway, landing on its side. Fifteen people, including the driver, were injured. Their conditions ranged from stable to critical. Rescuers had to cut seats apart to get at some of the victims.

A casino tour bus returning New York City gamblers home in a snowstorm overturned, killing one man and injuring dozens more, three critically. A passenger said the driver fell asleep at the wheel while speeding. Police cited the driver for careless driving. Roads were wet from falling snow when the New York-bound bus crashed and flipped over on the Garden State Parkway in central New Jersey about 5:20 a.m. The crash injured 34 people.

A small bus carrying disabled senior citizens collided with a truck on a rain-soaked rural road Friday, killing two bus passengers and injuring 14 people, including two in the truck, police said. The bus was hit head-on by an ice truck after the truck driver apparently crossed into the oncoming lane, police said.

Luis Sojo couldn't understand why Edmonton Manager Chuck Oliveras insisted he bring a sport jacket on the team's trip to Calgary Thursday. "I went back (to his lodgings) to get it, but I didn't take my other clothes with me," he said. "Then they told me something had happened, but they wouldn't tell me what."

A bus taking gamblers home from an Atlantic City casino ran into the back of a New Jersey Transit bus early Monday and 21 people were injured slightly, authorities said. Police said they did not know the final destination of the casino bus, which belongs to Werner Bus Lines of Phoenixville, Pa.

"Late Night With David Letterman" was never a bigger bomb. The laughter fizzled a few minutes after midnight, just as soon as the stark white type began to crawl across the bottom of the television screen. THE CALIFORNIA ANGELS' . . . . . . TEAM BUS . . . . . . HAS OVERTURNED . . . . . . ON THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE . . . MORE TO FOLLOW . . . More to follow? That's it? More to follow? The mind ran amok, overwhelmed by the drag of time. Ken McBride. Not again. Minnie Rojas.

Bobby Rose lies awake in a cramped apartment in Yokohama, Japan, tormented by the memories of a year ago, and afraid that he will forever be haunted by them. Buck Rodgers, who spent two months in a wheelchair and never will have full mobility in his right arm, walks gingerly up and down the dugout steps each day, his left knee aching with arthritis.