Bus hits low overpass, shearing off its roof

The driver of a charter bus carrying the Garfield High School girls' softball team that smashed into a pedestrian overpass in the Washington Park Arboretum Wednesday, has been cited by police for "hitting a structure with impaired clearance."

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More photos of the crash

· Bus crash blamed on GPS system

The drivers name hasn't been released by police or by the bus company, Journey Lines.

A spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center said 22 people were brought to the hospial from the accident, all were treated and released.

The bus hit the overpass at 6:22 p.m. as it was traveling on Lake Washington Boulevard East, shearing off the roof and breaking several windows. Aboard the bus were 21 students, their coach and the driver.

Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said five students were taken by private ambulance to Harborview Medical Center after they complained of such things as neck or back pain; none of the injuries appeared to be serious. The rest of the passengers on the bus were taken on another charter bus to Harborview as a precaution.

Right fielder Ana Masters was talking to friends when glass started shattering around her.

"The roof fell in on one side specifically and glass was, like, everywhere," Masters said, clutching her bruised elbow as she left Harborview Medical Center. "I went flying out of my chair backwards to another chair, and my back got hit, and then I fell down.

"Everyone was telling me to get up, and they helped me get off the bus, and they just laid me down on the ground until I got medics."

A yellow reflective sign on each side of the footbridge says, "Low clearance, 9 feet 0 inches."

The team was returning from a 10-0 loss to the Lake Washington High School girls softball team in Kirkland earlier in the afternoon.

The bus driver, who identified himself only as Brad, sat calmly in a neighboring parking lot as the parts of the bus were removed, and a tow truck pulled it from under the bridge about an hour after the crash.

The driver said he wasn't hurt, and deferred questions to Journey Lines President Steve Abegg, who arrived on the scene.

Abegg said the bus was 11-feet, 8-inches high, well above the height limit for the bridge.

"I know how it happened, but no comment," Abegg said.

He was cautious about making assessments about the accident. "I don't know what distracted" the driver, Abegg said.

It wasn't immediately clear what damage if any was done to the 96-year-old footbridge, which conceals a sewer trunk line.

Listed in city documentation as the Arboretum Aqueduct, the footbridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Broadmoor resident Adrienne Loop said oversize vehicles frequently strike the bridge. Usually it happens on a weekend, and usually the driver is behind the wheel of a rented truck, she said.

"I'd say that a large truck hits the bridge every two weeks or so," Loop said. "But this is by far the worst."