Student Emily Jones
is consoled briefly by the Rev. Thomazine Shanahan, a campus minister, following
a
Nov. 22 healing service in Eisenhower Chapel. The service was held to offer
prayers after a Nov. 21
four-bus accident on Interstate 80 killed two people.
Photo: Greg Grieco
These items, along
with homework papers and other personal belongings, were left at the accident
scene and returned to
University Park by state police. Shown here on tables in the HUB, the items
were being displayed so their owners could retrieve them.
Photo: Greg Grieco
The University community is still recovering from the Sunday, Nov. 21, four-bus accident on a foggy stretch of Interstate 80 near White Haven, Pa., that claimed the lives of a Penn State student and a bus driver, and injured more than 100 students.
Penn State senior Denise R. Orndorff, 23, of Ohiopyle and bus driver Robert Clifford Burge, 50, of Altoona, died in the accident that occurred shortly before 1 a.m. Burge was driving the second bus in a caravan of six buses chartered from the Blue and White Line of Altoona as part of an annual sightseeing and shopping trip sponsored by the Association of Residence Hall Students at University Park. About 280 students in all were traveling on the buses. Orndorff was a passenger in the front seat of the third bus. Her mother, who was injured in the accident, was seated next to her. The first and last buses were not involved in the crash. Three passenger vehicles also were involved in the accident, according to state police.
Police, who continue to investigate the causes of the accident, reported that 106 people were injured and many were taken from the scene to about a half dozen hospitals throughout the northeast area of the state. In a press briefing the day of the accident, University President Graham B. Spanier said the bus drivers hit "a blanket of thick fog," and that may have been the major circumstance related to the accident. Spanier offered condolences to the families of the deceased and directed University staff to offer assistance to students, their roommates and their families.
University staff from other Penn State campuses near the accident went to hospitals to meet with students and to offer assistance. More than 100 students were taken to three area churches in White Haven that were used to provide emergency shelter. Spanier expressed his gratitude to University personnel at all locations who worked long hours to provide students with assistance and to help the University community heal.
About 45 ambulances from northeastern Pennsylvania responded to the accident scene and between 150 and 200 firefighters, EMT and state transportation employees also were dispatched to assist, as well as 25 state police officers from three different barracks.
"I want to thank the many emergency services personnel, police and hospital staffs ... that jumped into action so quickly to attend to the needs of our students," Spanier said.
In the wake of the accident, the University placed ads in newspapers in the Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and White Haven areas to thank those who rushed to the aid of students, providing them with food, shelter, medical assistance and comfort. At a Web site set up by the Department of Public Information by 7 a.m. the morning of the accident, facts were provided and updated about the multi-vehicle accident. An e-mail link was used often by those visiting the site to offer support and condolences and to praise Penn State students for their caring attitude and calmness in the aftermath of the crash.
By late morning on the day of the accident, six replacement buses had been dispatched to bring back most of the Penn State students. Staff from Residence Life, University Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services were on hand to assist and counsel students. Special counseling services were extended to Orndorff's roommate and those living in the residence hall with her. Counseling services also were set up in the residence hall and at University Health Services.
Most of the students' belongings from the buses were recovered by state police and returned by Nov. 24 to the HUB where students and friends could claim them. Police had impounded the belongings as part of their investigation and items from one bus could not immediately be returned because the accident damaged the mechanisms that operate the compartment doors and the doors could not be opened. Counseling services have continued and replacement textbooks have been made available through a loan program created by Penn State Bookstore and Barnes & Noble, which operates the store. Faculty were asked to accommodate students involved in the accident and to provide flexibility on scheduled academic activities.
Since the accident, clergy on campus offered prayers and readings during a Nov. 22 interfaith "healing service" for about 100 students, faculty, staff and administrators at University Park. During the ceremony in Eisenhower Chapel, attendees shared their experiences from the accident and remembered Orndorff and Burge.
One unidentified student who was in the Sunday morning accident said, "I wanted to talk about how courageous each and every student was at the scene. God gave me the strength to help others when I could, and others helped me when they could."
Orndorff, who was majoring in biology, was buried Saturday, Nov. 27, in the Christ Lutheran Cemetery in Chalk Hill following services. She was a Uniontown High School honors graduate who attended the Penn State Fayette campus for two years before transferring to University Park.
In a statement to media on Nov. 22, Gregory W. Gray, Fayette campus executive officer said, "We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and would like to express our sincere condolences to the family. Denise was an outstanding student."