GATLINBURG, Tenn. — A tour bus carrying 40 members of First Baptist Church, Gaston, S.C, youth group crashed into a tree on a steep mountain road in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Jan. 20 injuring 11 people.
Police say the driver was traveling toward downtown Gatlinburg when the bus hit a utility pole and then plowed head-on into a tree. Several students were trapped inside the bus and emergency crews had to cut them out of the wreckage.
The driver and an 18-year-old passenger were airlifted to University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. The unidentified college freshman fractured a vertebra. Nine other members of the church group were treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital.
Associate pastor Mitch Marsh said the youth group was in Gatlinburg for an interdenominational youth rally.
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