Bus carrying UMass students in highway rollover

Police at the scene in Putney, a small town just north of Brattleboro, said the driver did not appear to apply the brakes as the bus lost control.

‘‘I can see clear tread patterns of dirt,’’ Vermont State Police Sergeant Michael Sorensen said from the scene. ‘‘If the brakes were locked, I would see black marks. I don’t see any black marks.’’

The bus was one of eight bound for a ski trip in Canada, authorities said. Students on the trip said they had been told the driver had a heart attack.

Sorensen said the bus managed to stay upright as it careened over a slightly depressed median. The crash occurred about five miles north of Exit 4 on a relatively flat, straight stretch of highway. Road conditions were dry and clear.

‘‘The bus somehow entered the median on its wheels, went into the southbound lanes on its wheels, and was on its wheels when it hit the embankment,’’ Sorensen said from the highway near the overturned bus, which was illuminated by spotlights.

Liz Brown, a spokeswoman for Tour World, a charter bus company in Danville, Penn., said eight of its buses were traveling from Amherst to Quebec City. Shortly after 9 p.m., she said all the students had been released from the hospital and were being taken back to campus. The other seven buses, all containing UMass Amherst students, continued to Quebec, she said.

The driver had worked for the company for several years and was reliable, Brown said.

‘‘His wife is extremely distraught,’’ she said.

Rescue workers had to cut out the front windshield to extricate the driver and at least one other passenger, Sorensen said. The driver was taken by helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

A spokeswoman for Brattleboro Memorial Hospital said eight injured passengers were treated and released. Some of the more seriously injured were taken to Springfield Hospital in Springfield, said Barbara Gentry, a spokeswoman for Brattleboro Memorial.

The uninjured passengers were interviewed and transported away on another bus.

Martin Greenberg, a UMass student, was on the bus that flipped. He was among the eight brought to the Brattleboro hospital with what the group was calling ‘‘partial injuries.’’ Greenberg said he suffered a deep cut on his arm, cuts down his back, and a torn ligament in a finger.

Four of the students taken to the outpatient center were given bus rides back to campus and the other four received rides home.

‘‘I feel bad for the driver,’’ said Greenberg. ‘‘I hope he’s all right.’’

Another passenger, UMass Amherst student Martin Mullis, said he knew that a few people sustained injuries, but did not know how severe.

‘‘Everybody is kind of shook up,’’ he said. ‘‘Nobody wants to talk about it right now.’’

A student in another bus on the trip, Chris Martin, said they had been told the driver had a heart attack, and that some injured students suffered minor concussions.

The students were on a private ski tour, a UMass Amherst spokesman said. The university was trying to find out how many students were on board and who they were, he said.

‘‘Our working assumption is that there are many UMass students there,’’ said Ed Blaguszewski. ‘‘Our staff has been in touch with one or two students at the scene who are reporting that a number of students have been treated and released at a local hospital and we are in the process of dispatching university vehicles to bring them back to campus.’’

The university is trying to contact the operator of the tour for more details on the crash, he said.
‘‘We are on the ground reaching out to help students and trying the best we can, as quickly as we can, to ascertain who was on the trip,’’ he said.

Robert Connolly, a spokesman for UMass President Jack Wilson, said the university has sent staff from the student affairs office to the hospitals to comfort students and assist family members. The university is also working to establish an emergency phone number for people to call.

‘‘This is definitely a distressing situation, and we’re concerned that some of our students are among the most seriously injured,’’ he said. ‘‘We will be monitoring the situation all night to get the facts until our students are accounted for and cared for.’’

On campus, students were unnerved by the crash. They said the trip was a yearly event for a ski club.

‘‘When my dad told me, my stomach just literally hit the floor because my best guy friends all went on the trip, and I hadn’t heard from any of them for a little while,’’ said junior Emma Gray. Gray later learned they were not seriously injured. ‘‘It’s just absolutely devastating this had to happen.’’

‘‘An hour ago I was worried about the assignments I had due next week,’’ said student Peter Vomero, ‘‘but now I’m wondering who I know on the trip.’’

Globe Correspondents Vivian Ho, Ursula Munn, and Alyssa Creamer contributed to this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.