YMCA bus crash on Idaho 55 sent many teenagers to hospitals. Here’s the latest
Days after a school bus carrying YMCA campers crashed on an Idaho highway, all of the injured passengers have been released from the hospital.
The bus was carrying about 30 people when it rolled over on Idaho 55 north of Banks on Friday afternoon, injuring 11 passengers and shutting down a section of the well-traveled road for nearly four hours, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Troopers responded to the accident near milepost 84 at around 3 p.m. Friday, according to Idaho State Police. The Treasure Valley YMCA summer camp bus was carrying teenagers ranging from 13 to 18 years old, and all were transported by air or ground ambulance to hospitals, the news release said.
Idaho YMCA President and CEO David Duro told the Statesman said there also were several adults on the bus, including camp counselors and the driver.
All passengers had been discharged as of Tuesday, St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus medical centers confirmed to the Statesman.
The bus was one of four heading back to Boise from the YMCA Camp at Horsethief Reservoir, which is about 10 miles from Cascade. One bus was directly behind the vehicle that crashed.
Several agencies, including the Eagle and Gem County fire departments, along with the Boise and Ada county sheriff’s offices and rescue crews, were on scene.
Hospitals release victims and police investigate
Seven teens were brought to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise on Friday, officials said. Medical staff released five of them soon after they were checked out and admitted two for further treatment.
All seven had initially been initially listed as “critical” by emergency responders at the scene, meaning “vital signs are unstable and not within normal limits, patients may be unconscious and indicators are unfavorable,” according to Saint Al’s spokesperson Mark Snider.
It’s not uncommon for a patient’s condition to change once a formal evaluation at a medical facility has taken place, Snider said. Citing medical privacy laws, he said the hospital could not release any other information on the victims’ statuses.
Sixteen patients were taken to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Boise, according to St. Luke’s spokesperson Taylor Reeves Marschner.
Aaron Snell, Idaho State Police spokesperson, said police conducted drug and alcohol tests on the driver as a routine part of investigations of this nature. He said police have not filed any charges or traffic violations at this time.
“Because of the sheer quantity of involved individuals, it just takes a lot longer for an investigation,” Snell told the Statesman by phone.
A secondary crash involving multiple vehicles occurred “substantially behind the bus” when drivers tried to stop quickly on the road, where traffic had backed up, according to Snell. No one was seriously injured, Snell said.
Passenger’s father was ‘terrified’
Greg McCoy, 54, of Boise, had two daughters coming home from the YMCA camp that day. He said he was “terrified” after hearing of the crash.
“I didn’t know if my daughter was on the bus that flipped or not,” he told the Statesman by phone.
He later learned that Riley, 12, had been on one of the first buses to safely arrive back at the YMCA building at 3:15 p.m. Harper, 9, was on the bus behind the one that crashed and didn’t get back to Boise until later that night. He was not able to reach her because of the area’s lack of cellphone service.
“She had to sit there for five hours not knowing whether her sister was alive or not,” he said.
Harper described watching the bus in front of her traveling quickly when it slammed on its brakes, veered to the left and flipped a couple of times, her father said.
She told her dad that other drivers offered food and drinks to the children after the crash.
Harper seemed fine when she first got home, but after the adrenaline wore off, she threw up, according to McCoy.
“She was pretty shaken up,” he said.
YMCA cancels remaining camp days
The Treasure Valley YMCA canceled its remaining camp days to give counselors and others time to process the accident and access help offered by the YMCA, according to Duro.
“Their entire job is to work with these kids 24 hours a day. …They become quite close,” Duro said. “We just didn’t think it was the right thing to ask them to do to be totally focused on a new set of kids when they might be preoccupied with worrying about the kids on that bus.”
More than 1,700 children attended camp this year. About 150 children who were scheduled to arrive Sunday for the last camp session of the season were given refunds.
“It’s a great program and that’s what makes it even more tragic,” Duro said. “We’ve got people that are hurt and people that are going to have longer recoveries. It’s just heartbreaking.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2023 at 4:37 PM.
