Greyhound service resumes after fatal bus crash

MANCHESTER, Tennessee (CNN) -- Greyhound Lines resumed bus service at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday after one of its buses crashed in Tennessee when the driver's throat was slit. Authorities said six people were killed in the crash.

The driver, who survived the attack, told doctors that a man cut his throat with "a razor or box cutter," then grabbed the steering wheel, sending the bus careering off an interstate highway.

Greyhound service was suspended for several hours but resumed after the FBI told the company it was safe to continue. Greyhound President Craig Lentzsch said at a news conference that authorities told him the accident was the result of "an isolated act by a single deranged individual."

Lentzsch reported six people died in the crash. The Tennessee Department of Safety had reported 10 were killed but revised its number to six.

The man who attacked the bus driver was among the dead, said Steve Deford, the Coffee County 911 director.

Dr. Ralph Bard, a surgeon at the Medical Center of Manchester who treated the bus driver, quoted the driver as saying his attacker had asked several times about the route of the bus.

AUDIO Witness Carly Rinearson gives her account of the attack and bus crash (Courtesy WTVF) 879 K / WAV sound "The man came up this last time and cut his throat with what he described as either a razor or a box cutter and then he actually grabbed the wheel and forced the bus across the median to the oncoming traffic," Bard quoted the driver as saying.

The driver told Bard that the man was "5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11 and 150 to 160 pounds." Bard said the driver told him the man was "foreign" and spoke with an accent. A government official said the man was carrying Croatian identification.

Bard said the driver never lost consciousness. He said the driver was able to climb out of the wrecked bus and go for help. Bard said the driver, a Greyhound veteran from Marietta, Georgia, is in good condition after surgery to treat the laceration on his neck.

Carly Rinearson, a passenger on the bus, said in a phone call to CNN affiliate WTVF that a man kept asking if he could have her seat near the front of the bus. She said he appeared agitated and kept asking what time it was.

Rinearson said when she refused to give up her seat, "He just went up to the bus driver and ... slit his throat. And the bus driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over."

She did not describe the man further or say what kind of weapon he had.

Rescue workers and police are shown at the scene of an overturned Greyhound bus near Manchester, Tennessee, early Wednesday. The Knoxville, Tennessee, field office of the FBI sent agents to the scene. They said if there was no apparent violation of federal law, the investigation would be turned back over to state and local authorities.

In Washington, federal officials told CNN they believe the crash to be an isolated incident and not terrorism.

Authorities said the incident occurred at 4:13 a.m. CDT. The bus, running on schedule No. 1115, had been carrying 38 passengers and had originated in Chicago, Illinois, on a trip to Orlando, Florida. The crash occurred on the trip's leg from Louisville, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia, Greyhound said. It had departed Louisville at 1:15 a.m. CDT and was due to arrive in Atlanta at 8 a.m. EDT.

When police arrived, the bus was lying on its side by Interstate 24 after running across the median and then the oncoming lanes. No other vehicles were involved. The accident occurred near the intersection of I-24 and state Highway 41 near mile marker 105, police said.

At the scene said that there were skid marks where the bus veered across the median, ran off the road and turned over.

Victims were taken to local hospitals with some airlifted to hospitals in Nashville to the north and Chattanooga to the south by helicopter. Deford said 32 people had been taken to hospitals.

Kristin Parlsey, the Greyhound representative, said Greyhound had set up a number for families to call -- 800-884-2744.

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