After Harvard visit, dozens injured in bus crash

She did what most kids would do. She called her mother.

"She was screaming and crying and saying that the roof was caving in and that she couldn't see anything, and she hit her head and she hurt her arm," said Teresa Merrigan, describing the call from her daughter Alana.

Alana and the 41 others on the Calvary Coach bus had just begun the hours-long journey back to the Philadelphia area late Saturday. The driver, Samuel J. Jackson, was trying to navigate Boston's confusing maze of roads and rotaries, famously challenging to out-of-towners. He looked down at his GPS and looked back up and saw the bridge but was too close to avoid hitting it, Ray Talmedge, owner of the Philadelphia-based bus company, told WCAU-TV.

Thirty-five people were injured in the crash, Massachusetts state police said. One remained hospitalized in critical condition, four were in stable condition, one was in serious condition and one was awaiting discharge on Sunday night, they said.

The students were part of a Destined for a Dream Foundation group, based in Bristol, Pa.

"We're really, really blessed, because it could have been much worse," Erica Waller-Hill, who created the foundation, told WCAU-TV on Sunday.

Some passengers were trapped for more than an hour as rescue crews worked to free them, Massachusetts state police said. Firefighters stood atop the bus, part of its roof crumpled, and used boards to extract passengers, fire department photos showed. The bus suffered significant damage in the crash.

"There was a lot of glass, a lot of screaming, a lot of crying," foundation vice president Gregory Harris told WCAU-TV.

Authorities said the bus did not belong on Soldier's Field Road, a major crosstown street where a 10-foot height limit is in place and oversized vehicles are not allowed. Signs warning of the overpass' height restriction are "all over the place" on the road, Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, said Sunday.