The Latest: Driver worried Masters patrons before bus crash
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) The Latest on the crash of a tour bus that injured passengers heading to the Masters golf tournament (all times local):
7:20 p.m.
A passenger injured when a charter bus crashed on the way to the Masters golf tournament says he's thankful ''everybody's alive.''
Doctors Hospital in Augusta released video Thursday evening of Kip Plowman describing the crash as he waited in the emergency room to have broken glass removed from his hand.
Plowman said the bus careened off the road and spun around one and a half times before skidding on its side a good distance. He said the bus was filling up with smoke as he climbed through a window above his head.
Plowman said he felt badly for other injured passengers as well as for Masters ticketholders stuck on Interstate 20 as it was shut down after the crash. He said: ''It's not the way we planned the day.''
---
3:20 p.m.
A Georgia hospital says it's treating nine passengers - including one in critical condition - who were injured when a charter bus overturned on the way to the Masters golf tournament.
Doctors Hospital in Augusta said in a statement Thursday that six of the nine passengers taken there were either in good condition or had been treated and released.
Sgt. Chris Wright of the Georgia State Patrol says 18 passengers were riding the bus from Atlanta to Augusta for the first round of the Masters when the bus overturned on Interstate 20. The driver, 61-year-old Steven F. Hoppenbrouwer, has been charged with driving under the influence.
Wright said none of the passengers suffered life-threatening injuries, though several had broken bones and head injuries.
---
1:45 p.m.
A Georgia state trooper says passengers riding a charter bus to the Masters golf tournament told investigators the driver veered off the roadway twice before he swerved a third time and caused the bus to overturn, injuring 15 people.
Sgt. Chris Wright of the Georgia State Patrol told The Associated Press one passenger told troopers he had decided before the crash: ''I'm not riding back with him. I'll call an Uber.''
The bus was taking 18 passengers from Atlanta to the tournament in Augusta when it crashed Thursday morning on Interstate 20. Wright said some passengers suffered broken bones and head injuries.
The driver, 61-year-old Steven F. Hoppenbrouwer, has been charged with driving under the influence. Wright said authorities believe he had been using drugs, not alcohol.
---
12:03 p.m.
Authorities say a tour bus headed to the Masters golf tournament flipped over on a Georgia interstate, injuring at least a dozen people.
The bus driver has been charged with DUI.
Georgia State Patrol officials say the bus carrying 18 people crashed on Interstate 20 around 8:45 a.m. Thursday. Sixty-one-year-old Steven Hoppenbrouwer is also charged with failure to maintain lane.
Authorities say Hoppenbrouwer ran off the side of the road and overcorrected before the bus overturned on the median.
Several people were taken to hospitals but the patrol says the injuries were not life-threatening.