Driver injured, UMaine women’s basketball team safe after bus accident

A bus driver and University of Maine women’s basketball coach Richard Barron were injured when a bus transporting the team to a game in Boston went off Interstate 95 near Georgetown, Mass., at approximately 8:30 p.m., Feb. 26.

The bus driver was lifeflighted from the scene. Coach Barron was being treated for minor facial lacerations.

Three team members were transported to an area hospital for observation — players Ashleigh Roberts and Corinne Wellington, and Samantha Wheeler, the team’s director of basketball operations.

According to a UMaine staff member at the scene, the bus was southbound when it left the roadway, crossed the median and the northbound lanes, and came to a stop off the tree-lined shoulder. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.

“We’re very thankful that this accident was not any worse than it was,” says Robert Dana, vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “The thoughts of the entire University of Maine community are with the bus driver and the team as they contend with this very frightening event.”