US lacrosse team bus crashes; pregnant coach, unborn child dies

Carlisle : A road trip by a college women's lacrosse team came to a horrifying end on Saturday when the team bus veered off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and crashed into a tree, killing a pregnant coach, her unborn child, and the driver, and injuring numerous others, authorities said.

Seton Hill University team players and coaches were among the 23 people aboard when the bus crashed just before 9 a.m. No other vehicle was involved, and police could not immediately say what caused the accident.

Coach Kristina Quigley, 30, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was flown to a hospital but died there of injuries she suffered in the crash, Cumberland County authorities said. Quigley was about six-months pregnant and her unborn child did not survive, authorities said. The bus driver, Anthony Guaetta, 61, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, died at the scene.

The other passengers were removed from the bus within an hour and taken to hospitals as a precaution. The collision appeared to have shorn away the front left side of the bus, which rested upright about 70 yards (65 meters) from the road at the bottom of a grassy slope.

The lacrosse team was headed to play Saturday afternoon at Millersville University, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the crash site in central Pennsylvania, for its fourth game of the year.

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Both Saturday's game and a Sunday home game were cancelled after the crash, and Seton Hill, a Catholic school of about 2,500 students near Pittsburgh, said a memorial Mass was planned for Sunday night on campus.

Quigley, a native of Baltimore, was married and had a young son, the school said. She was in her second season as coach and came to the school after spending three years as coach at Erskine College in South Carolina. She also worked as an assistant coach at Duquesne, her alma mater in Pittsburgh, the school said.

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The bus operator, Mlaker Charter & Tours, of Davidsville, Pennsylvania, is up to date on its inspections, which include bus and driver safety checks, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utility Commission, which regulates bus companies.

The agency's motor safety inspectors could think of no accidents or violations involving the company that would raise a red flag, she said, though complete safety records were not available Saturday.

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On Tuesday, another bus carrying college lacrosse players from a Vermont team was hit by a sports car that spun out of control on a wet highway in upstate New York, sending the bus toppling onto its side, police said. One person in the car died.