Many tour bus crash victims head home

BOSTON -- Students well enough to make the trip are headed home to Philadelphia after the tour bus they were on crashed into a bridge on Soldiers Field Road.

“They’re shaken up, but we have some tough kids, so I think we’re going to pull through,” said Greg Harris, a passenger.

The bus was heading for Philadelphia from Harvard University when it smashed into an overpass trapping students and their chaperones inside.

“A lot of glass, a lot of screaming, a lot of crying,” said Harris.

It was a nightmare ending to a trip meant to inspire high school kids to dream.

“No words can describe being on the bus. It got dark. I believe I may have passed out,” said Harris.

Ambulances and fire trucks raced to Soldiers Field Road where the crumpled bus came to a stop on the other side of the Western Avenue overpass. Firefighters used saws and the Jaws of Life to cut passengers free.

“When I was riding on the bus it was scary when the roof came down,” said Jaxson Walters.

Just 9 years old, Jaxson Walters was the youngest on the bus. His older brother was aboard, along with boys' mother.

“My mom got a broken collar bone and she had a scar on her forehead here. It was bleeding,” said Jaxson Walters.

Jaxson described the chaos of people yelling and crying, until rescue workers freed them.

“Right now it is a blur. However - I was on the bus. I was on the bus,” said Erica Waller-Hill, a trip chaperone.

Adults chaperoning the college tour organized by Pennsylvania’s Destined for a Dream Foundation, said their only focus now is getting the students back to their parents.

“My oldest son text me on the phone and said something happened,” said Brian Walters.

The road was shut down through the night while crews worked to remove the bus. It's injured passengers, grateful to those who got them out and hoping to get home soon.

“We’re really, really blessed it could have been so much worse,” said Waller-Hill.

Thirty-five people were taken to local hospitals to be examined. Three were seriously hurt and of those three, one remains in critical condition.