Bus overturns in Vance County

Twelve people were slightly injured this morning when a Greyhound bus ran off the side of U.S. 1 in Vance County and overturned, the state Highway Patrol said.

The bus driver, Steven Leverne Holloman, 52, of Fredericksburg, Va., told troopers he was very tired and fell asleep at the wheel, the patrol said in a news release. He was charged with careless and reckless driving.

The bus was carrying 29 passengers at the time of the accident, about 5:45 a.m., just north of Kittrell near the U.S. 1 Business intersection.

The bus struck a ditch bank and rolled over on its right side, sliding about 100 feet before stopping at the tree line on the right shoulder, the patrol said. The passengers appeared to have gotten out of the bus through escape hatches on its roof.

All of those on the bus were taken to a hospital in Henderson, said Greyhound spokesman Eric Wesley. He said the company would send a relief bus to pick up passengers.

The bus was traveling from Richmond, Va., to Fayetteville, Wesley said.

Among the travelers was Katrina Brown, 20, of Fort Pierce, Fla. The nursing assistant student got on the bus in Richmond about 3 a.m. She sat in the rear of the bus on the right side - the side on which the bus fell.

She said that she was sleeping when she heard a loud boom. "Like, all I know is when I woke up everyone was coming over me." She said that she saw a mother trying to protect her three children, including a baby.

"I'm ready to go home, but I'm scared to get back on the bus," Brown said.

Wesley, the Greyhound spokesman,m said he did not know why the driver would have been tired, but he noted that the company is required to comply with federal standards on how long a driver can remain behind the wheel without taking a break.

The accident was not far from where a Carolina Trailways bus ran into the rear of a tractor-trailer stopped on U.S. 1 in January. Twenty-seven passengers were injured in that accident. The bus was headed to Raleigh.