Pa. bus crash kills 2, hurts 32

CLEARFIELD, Pa. - A bus bound for New York veered off a highway and crashed in central Pennsylvania early yesterday, killing two people and injuring 32 others, authorities said.

The bus was traveling east on Interstate 80 with 36 people on board when it crashed 6 miles west of Clearfield at about 3:30 a.m., state police said.

Several people, ranging in age from a toddler to a 50-year-old, were taken to Clearfield Hospital, and others were transferred to Altoona Hospital.

Police said the bus had been traveling from Chicago.

Yuk Sau Wong, of OK Travel Bus Inc., in New York, said the bus, one of two or three the company owns, left Youngstown, Ohio, between midnight and 1 a.m. She said the bus line mainly serves the Chinese community but also carries other passengers.

Another victim was taken directly to Altoona Hospital, which had two people listed in serious condition and seven in guarded condition, nursing supervisor Ann Langenbacher said.

Investigators initially had some difficulty piecing together what happened because most of the passengers did not speak English, Trooper Jamie Levier said. State police took a Chinese interpreter, Du Hua, to Clearfield Hospital to help communicate with the victims.

Hua said most of the passengers told him they were sleeping at the time of the crash.

"The thing they remember, they woke up screaming," Hua said. "The next thing they knew, they were on the ground." *