Passenger attacks bus driver; 6 killed

MANCHESTER, Tenn. -- A passenger on a Greyhound bus slashed the driver's throat with a blade, grabbed the wheel and crashed the vehicle Wednesday, killing six of the 41 people aboard and prompting the company to temporarily shut down service across an already jittery nation.

The driver was in stable condition following surgery for a 4- to 5-inch cut on his neck. The 34 others aboard were also injured.

The FBI said the 29-year-old assailant was among the dead. He was identified as Damir Igric, a Croatian who entered the United States in Miami in March 1999 with a one-month visa. He boarded the bus in Chicago.

"He just went up to the bus driver and, like, slit his throat," passenger Carly Rinearson told WTVF-TV in Nashville.

The FBI said Igric was apparently trying to take over the bus.

"We believe he was acting alone," said R. Joe Clark, the FBI's agent in charge of the Knoxville office. "I would say this was a disturbed individual. This is not an act of terrorism."

Not on terrorists lists

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the name on the man's passport is not on government lists of known terrorists and those sought by the FBI in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Clark said Igric attacked the driver "with an implement."

"It was sharp, we'll leave it at that," he said.

The driver told doctors he was attacked with a box cutter, a device believed to have been used in last month's airliner hijackings.

The crash happened just after 4 a.m. on Interstate 24 near Manchester, 60 miles southeast of Nashville. The bus, which originated in Chicago, was headed for Orlando, Fla. At the time, most of those aboard were asleep.

Dr. Al Brandon, chief of staff at the Medical Center of Manchester, said the driver, Garfield Sands, 53, told him the attacker was polite and spoke with a foreign accent.

"Every few minutes he seemed to ask (the driver) what time it was and where they were," Police Chief Ross Simmons said.

Sands told doctors Igric suddenly "accosted" him, grabbed the wheel and forced the bus into the lanes of oncoming traffic. It crossed the road and tipped over.

The driver crawled from the wreckage through a window and tried to flag down passing vehicles. He told Brandon his attacker was thrown through the windshield.

Greyhound immediately shut down service as a precaution, pulling 2,000 to 2,500 buses off the nation's highways. After consulting with federal and state officials, it resumed service at noon, about seven hours later.

No passengers at Jackson

In Jackson, Mo., a bus scheduled to arrive at 10:45 a.m. from Memphis, Tenn., never arrived, but no would-be passengers were left stranded at the outdoor bus stop.

Ticket agent Rebecca Forester said sales were dead.

"I don't know if it's just a midweek slump or if it's the result of the accident," Forester said. With the Columbus Day weekend coming up, she expected a little more business.

Five Greyhound buses traveling between Memphis and St. Louis make stops next to the courthouse in Jackson each day, two northbound and three southbound.

"The officials have assured me that they believe this tragic accident was the result of an isolated act by a single deranged individual," Greyhound president and chief executive Craig Lentzsch said.

The shutdown stranded some 70,000 passengers at stations across the United States, Greyhound spokeswoman Jamille Bradfield said. The bus company carries 25 million passengers a year.

Dana Keeton, a Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman, said six people died at the site of the crash.

By late afternoon, 14 passengers remained hospitalized. Among them was Elena Wilson, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant and gave birth to a girl in an emergency Caesarean section. Both were in stable condition.

Others were treated and released.

"I was on the bus and I'm alive. That's all I can tell you," passenger Ricardo Jamal Brooks said as he left a hospital. He chose Greyhound to get from Flint, Mich., to Atlanta because he was worried about airline safety.

"You could understand why (I chose the bus), but you know, you never know," he said.

Some waited for hours

Elsewhere, Greyhound passengers waited for hours or found other means of transportation.

"People are a little panicky about it," said Joi Smith, a Greyhound agent in New Hampshire. "They are freaked out, which is understandable."

Lentzsch said that Greyhound was offering full refunds to passengers, and that Amtrak had agreed to accept Greyhound tickets.

He also said security was being bolstered: As service resumed, carry-on luggage was searched, and passengers in San Francisco, Dallas and Orlando were checked with hand-held metal detectors. The wands were introduced in response to the terrorist attacks.

Greyhound does not maintain lists of passengers.

"They ought to have a manifest," Gov. Don Sundquist said. "I think bus travel needs to be scrutinized as well as aircraft."

Southeast Missourian staff writer Andrea L. Buchanan contributed to this report.