Bus Driver Stricken at Wheel; Five Injured in Crash

Staff reports
iBerkshires
04:45PM / Wednesday, July 29, 2009

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Updated on July 30, 2009

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A Dufour Inc. bus went off the road and into a ditch early Wednesday morning after the driver apparently had a heart attack.

James A. Witherell, 69, of Williamstown was pronounced dead at Berkshire Medical Center, said police. Preliminary results indicate Witherell likely had a heart attack, said police.

Witherell had been a driver with Dufour for 18 months, according to reports in The Berkshire Eagle, and the bus itself was one of the newer ones in the fleet. Witherell had been a trucker for some years in his younger days. He had retired from the security department of GE in 1993.

Five members of a Massachusetts College of Liberal Art's program were injured when the bus smashed into the guard rails near Unistress.

The bus was one of three bringing 80 members of MCLA's Leadership Academy program home to North Adams from an evening at Tanglewood in Lenox.

The bus, with only 15 passengers, was northbound on Route 8 (Cheshire Road) at about 12:40 a.m. when it apparently veered to the right and went into a gully. The accident is being investigated by the Pittsfield Police Department; Lanesborough Police, fire personnel from both communities and Lanesborough and County ambulances also responded to the scene.

MCLA Vice President of Administration and Finance James Stakenas said the five graduate students were taken to BMC with injuries; four were treated and released and a fifth was kept for further treatment. Stakenas said he had not confirmed whether that individual had been released yet.

"Our hearts go out to the Dufour business and family because of this," said Stakenas. "We are very sad for them, it's a difficult thing to go through."

The Leadership Academy is an intensive program for educators seeking administrative certification. The residential program offers 12 credits of coursework crammed into just over two weeks.

The area's many cultural attractions "punctuate their week as part of their program," said Stakenas. Dufour was being used to take the large group to see Tanglewood on Parade, which included Gov. Deval Patrick narrating Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

This isn't the first time the academy has seen tragedy. In 2005, Brooklyn, N.Y., teacher Lenore Silverbush, 51, was killed and four others injured when the minivan in which they were riding was struck by a reckless driver in New Ashford. Silverbush and four other teachers attending the academy had gone to a performance at Jacob's Pillow in Becket. The minivan was owned by one of the teachers.

In such circumstances, the college's Public Safety Office is informed and alerts senior leadership, "who step in to ensure our students and faculty are safe," he said. "[Public Safety] did a great job of notifying people."

College leaders met with the visiting faculty and program participants Wednesday morning to inform them of the services available to them. Classes for the day were adjusted to take into consideration the accident and lateness of the students' arrival back on campus. The program itself ends next week.

"We're fortunate that our graduate students are safe," said Stakenas.

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