Tampabay: Bus full of tourists tips on I-4

PLANT CITY -- At least 29 of 38 passengers were injured when a bus carrying British tourists from Busch Gardens to Orlando careened into the Interstate 4 median and tipped over Wednesday evening, authorities said.

Two seriously injured passengers were airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, and the rest were taken by ambulance to TGH and Lakeland Regional Medical Center, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The bus landed on the legs of one teenage passenger who was partially ejected from a bus window.

The Orlando-based tour bus' steering failed, troopers said, causing it to crash about 6:45 p.m. as it headed east on I-4 near the Hillsborough-Polk county line. It narrowly avoided crossing over into the westbound lanes.

Most of the passengers were British visitors to Orlando who were returning from a $35 day trip to Clearwater Beach and Busch Gardens.

Bus driver Walter Mikel, 55, said he felt the bus begin to drift to the left. He gripped the wheel, but the bus didn't respond.

"Oh, my God," Mikel said. "Something's happening."

The driver had no control as the bus headed into the grassy highway median and toward oncoming traffic.

"I hit the brakes very, very hard, and the bus slipped over," Mikel said.

Passengers screamed as the bus tipped onto its right side. Nearly every window shattered. Mikel fell about 5 feet to the side of the bus.

The driver broke open the door and helped passengers get off, except for a woman trapped in the third seat and a man trapped in the last seat. The woman was crying, "Help me, help me, I can't get up," Mikel said.

Troopers said a mechanical failure apparently caused the crash. They didn't think the driver had been speeding, said FHP Lt. Sterling King.

FHP Trooper Doug Strickland said the bus' tie rod apparently became disconnected. The tie rod is a long steel rod that connects the bus' steering mechanism to the front wheels. Strickland said a ball slipped out of a joint on the tie rod.

"He couldn't steer it. When it disconnects, he's only steering one tire," Strickland said. "It could have just as easily straightened out and driven across the grass."

The bus ended up nearly perpendicularto the highway, its front facing the westbound lanes and its back facing the eastbound lanes. It crashed about 300 yards west of the County Line Road overpass.

Ambulances carted away dozens of injured people, but most had suffered no more than bumps and bruises. Many were covered in dirt from the highway median that had flown into the bus.

Tobi Porter, a paramedic with Americare Ambulance Co., took several passengers to TGH. She said some of them had been hurt by luggage that started flying when the bus flipped.

The two airlifted to TGH were an adult and a teen. The adult was in stable condition, and the teen was in guarded condition Wednesday night, the hospital said.

The bus is operated by Gator Tours, which bills itself as "the sightseeing company of Orlando." It offers daily round-trips from Orlando to other locations in Florida, such as Busch Gardens or Kennedy Space Center.

"Rest assured," the company's Web site says, "the Gator won't let you down and make your vacation as pleasant as it can possibly be."

The driver calmly recounted the accident more than an hour afterward.

He said he had driven for Gator Tours for three years and had made this particular trip hundreds of times before without incident.

"We are just concerned about the people," Mikel said. "It's not a good thing. We don't want people to think tourists get hurt in Florida."

On the other hand, Mikel said, the crash could easily have been worse. The bus came within a few feet of oncoming traffic, and he was glad to be alive.

"I don't play the lottery," he said, "but this is my lottery today."

- Times staff writer David Karp contributed to this report.

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