Greyhound Suspends Bus Services in U.S. MANCHESTER, Tenn. (Reuters) - Greyhound Lines suspended bus services across the United States on Wednesday after at least three people were killed in an accident that television reports said occurred when a passenger attacked a bus driver.

CNN reported that local officials said up to 10 people were confirmed dead.

Dallas-based Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus transportation in the United States, last suspended travel for one day after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

CNN reported that a passenger on the bus said in a telephone call to a local television station that the bus crashed after a passenger slashed the throat of the driver.

Greyhound spokeswoman Kirstin Parsley told CNN police had not confirmed the passenger's account of the attack on the driver. She said Greyhound had suspended bus services across the country as a precautionary measure.

Parsley said there were 36 passengers on the bus, which was traveling from Nashville to Atlanta.

Tim Hooker, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Association, confirmed three people had been killed.

Local broadcast reports said some of the passengers were airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and others to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The bus was overturned in a ditch by the Interstate 24 near Manchester some 60 miles (100 km) south of Nashville.

Greyhound Lines is a subsidiary of Laidlaw Inc. (Toronto:LDM.TO - news).

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), October 03, 2001

Answers

Driver describes attacker in Greyhound bus crash MANCHESTER, Tennessee (CNN) --Greyhound Lines suspended service for several hours Wednesday after one of its buses crashed in Tennessee when an attacker slit the driver's throat. Ten died in the ensuing crash, authorities said.

The driver, who survived the attack, told doctors that a man cut his throat with "a razor or box cutter," then grabbed the steering wheel, sending the bus careering off an interstate highway.

Greyhound said service was to resume Wednesday at noon CDT (1 p.m. EDT) after the FBI told the company it was safe to continue.

Ten people were killed in the crash in Manchester, said Dana Keeton, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety. The man who attacked the bus driver was among the dead, said Steve Deford, the Coffee County 911 director.

Dr. Ralph Bard, a surgeon at the Medical Center of Manchester who treated the bus driver, quoted the driver as saying his attacker had asked several times about the route of the bus.

"The man came up this last time and cut his throat with what he described as either a razor or a box cutter and then he actually grabbed the wheel and forced the bus across the median to the oncoming traffic," Bard quoted the driver as saying.

The driver told Bard that the man was "5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11 and 150 to 160 pounds." Bard said the driver told him the man was "foreign" and spoke with an accent.

Bard said the driver never lost consciousness. He said the driver was able to climb out of the wrecked bus and go for help. Bard said the driver, a Greyhound veteran from Marietta, Georgia, is in good condition after surgery to treat the laceration on his neck.

A government official said the man was carrying Croatian identification.

Carly Rinearson, a passenger on the bus, said in a phone call to CNN affiliate WTVF that a man kept asking if he could have her seat near the front of the bus. She said he appeared agitated and kept asking what time it was.

Rinearson said when she refused to give up her seat, "He just went up to the bus driver and ... slit his throat. And the bus driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over."

She did not describe the man further or say what kind of weapon he had.

The Knoxville, Tennessee, field office of the FBI sent agents to the scene. They said if there was no apparent violation of federal law, the investigation would be turned back over to state and local authorities.

In Washington, federal officials told CNN they believe the crash to be an isolated incident and not terrorism.

Authorities said the incident occurred at 4:13 a.m. CDT. The bus, running on schedule No. 1115, had been carrying 36 passengers and had originated in Chicago, Illinois, on a trip to Orlando, Florida. The crash occurred on the trip's leg from Louisville, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia, Greyhound said. It had departed Louisville at 1:15 a.m. CDT and was due to arrive in Atlanta at 8 a.m. EDT.

When police arrived, the bus was lying on its side by Interstate 24 after running across the median and then the oncoming lanes. No other vehicles were involved. The accident occurred near the intersection of I-24 and state Highway 41 near mile marker 105, police said.

At the scene said that there were skid marks where the bus veered across the median, ran off the road and turned over.

Victims were taken to local hospitals with some airlifted to hospitals in Nashville to the north and Chattanooga to the south by helicopter. Deford said 32 people had been taken to hospitals.

Kristin Parlsey, the Greyhound representative, said Greyhound had set up a number for families to call -- 800-884-2744.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 03, 2001.