A UPS delivery truck is seen after colliding with a UConn Transportation bus at the Arjona Westbound stop on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015. The bus was carrying around 20 students, and no student injuries were reported. (Fritz Bacon/The Daily Campus)
A UPS delivery truck crashed into a parked University of Connecticut bus carrying about 20 students Tuesday afternoon on Gilbert Rd.
According to witnesses, the accident occurred when the driver of the UPS truck had a seizure that caused him to swerve across the oncoming traffic lane and into the bus parked at the Arjona Westbound stop. No students on the university bus were injured as a result of the crash, police said.
“It seemed that he [UPS driver] just swerved at first and we all looked at him and saw he was having a seizure,” first-semester allied health major Marissa Dacruz, who was on the struck bus, said.
“A girl ran on the truck and was holding his (the driver’s) head straight up and he was shaking a lot,” Dacruz said.
UConn police officers and fire department personnel inspect the scene of the collision between a UConn Transportation bus and a UPS deliver truck at the Arjona Westbound stop on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015. (Fritz Bacon/The Daily Campus)
The girl, Kaitlyn Allen, a fifth-semester psychology major, kept him under control and got him to respond to her, said senior environmental law major Shelby Brelig, who was also on the bus at the time.
“The truck started swerving to the left, and I saw he was seizing,” Allen said. “I just sat there with him, talking with him, trying to help him calm down. Then the emergency vehicles came and took him.”
The UPS driver was initially unresponsive but regained consciousness before being taken to Windham Hospital by emergency personnel, UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said.
The student bus driver was showered with fragments of broken glass, but sustained no injuries, Reitz said.
“If they were in an area where people drive faster, it could have been much worse,” Reitz said.
Damage to the university bus included a cracked windshield and other minor cosmetic damage, said Reitz, who added that the accident will not disrupt the transportation department’s blue line.
Police would not provide further information about the accident, as the investigation is still underway.
Managing editor Matt Zabierek and associate news editor Nicholas Shigo contributed reporting.
Annabelle Orlando is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at annabelle.orlando@uconn.edu.