The University of Delaware has been dealing with a number of newsworthy issues and events recently, starting with the suspension of their rugby team, and now with a bus crash that injured a number of sorority girls.
Several sisters from the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority were injured Thursday night when a bus taking about 40 passengers to a party overturned in a crash with a tractor-trailer. The accident occurred around 10p.m. in Bear, Delaware.
The school bus, carrying 40 students between the ages of 18 and 22, was turning left onto Howell School Road when it was struck by a tractor-trailer that had run a red light, Delaware State Police said. The truck driver, Roberto Figueroa-Gomaz, 26, of Miami, was issued a summons for failing to stop at the light.
56-year-old John Faverio of Wilmington, Delaware was driving the school bus. Both drivers were properly restrained and were not injured in the crash.
Nine students were taken by ambulance to Christiana Hospital after the accident, state police Cpl. John Day said. Two were admitted with non life-threatening injuries. The remainder of the 40 passengers were taken to area medical centers by private vehicles and treated for minor injuries.
“We have approximately, what we call, 30 to 32 walking wounded,” police Sgt. Paul Shavack said.
John Brennan, director of public relations at the University of Delaware, says the sorority was being transported to a mixer at Aqua Sol nightclub at Summit North Marina. It was homecoming week at the University of Delaware.
A message posted overnight on the Facebook page for Phi Sigma Sigma’s national organization, based in Elkridge, Md., said staffers had arrived at the university and were offering assistance to sisters there.