News: Medford - MAMS Bus Accident (2004)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Cypher, Etten

----Source: The Star News (Medford, WI) 9/25/2014

Originally published in the Star News, September 23, 2004

A school bus and a beer truck collided last Thursday sending 28 Medford Area Middle School volleyball players, two coaches and the bus driver to the hospital.

“Libby and I were talking, and she must have seen the truck because she screamed just as it hit. Glass was flying everywhere. There was a noise like I’ve never heard before,” Said Coach Becky Etten, who was sitting up front with Coach Libby Cypher.

“It was an immense impact,” said Etten. “It was like hitting a brick wall. Then there was the second impact when we hit the ditch. The next few minutes were a blur. We just started getting everybody of the bus and breaking out the first aid kits.

The bus stopped with its front end dug into a ditch and its back bumper near the curb at a Spirit Falls intersection along Hwy 86. Passengers were taken by ambulance, car and a second bus to Sacred Heart Hospital in tomahawk where they were treated for cuts, bruised and sprains before being released.