One Morehouse band member remains under observation at Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta for injuries stemming from a Saturday bus crash that injured dozens of the school’s band members and rocked the HBCU community.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one of three Morehouse buses skidded on the wet roadway off I-75 south near the I-675 merge, flipped twice, and came to a rest on its side while on its way to a football game against Albany State University. The bus was carrying 42 of Morehouse’s “House of Funk” band members, other Morehouse students, neighboring Spelman students and faculty.
While more than a dozen students were believed to have suffered injuries, when speaking with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Capt. Jason Bolton, spokesman for the Henry Country Police Department stated that none were life-threatening. Several students were taken to various hospitals in Atlanta and were soon released. Two of the most seriously injured students were taken to Grady. One student was released, while the other remains in the hospital for observation.
Identities of all persons involved have been kept secret as authorities try to figure out exactly what caused the accident.
The fact that there were no fatalities came as reassuring words to those in the Atlanta University Center, especially Morehouse.
“I got a texts asking ‘are you okay,’ and I’m not even in the band,” says Kobi Ansong, a sophomore English major, who currently attends Morehouse. Ansong believes the abrupt incident worked to unite the already intimate Morehouse community.
“This [accident made] everyone really come together and try to make sure everyone was okay and everything was going to be alright.”
Morehouse College President Robert Franklin said in a statement issued Saturday that counselors and the chaplain would be on campus as resources at the students disposal.
“This was a frightening day, but thank God not a tragic day” Franklin said.
6 comments