29 people injured in car, bus collision

5/22/2013
BLADE STAFF

BOWLING GREEN — A bus carrying 30 Toledo workers from McComb, Ohio, bakery to Toledo collided with a car Tuesday night on I-75 south of Bowling Green, closing northbound lanes for two hours.

Nineteen passengers on the bus were injured, including one rider, Marquan Williams, 18, who was taken by air ambulance to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, according to state troopers from the Bowling Green post. The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m.

Another bus passenger, Allen Harkins, 22, was taken by an ambulance to St. Vincent.

All seven people in the car — including an infant, a toddler, and a 5-year-old — suffered minor injuries.

Troopers said the bus, driven by Isaac Starks, 49, was northbound on I-75 following a car driven by Sara Lipkins, 26. The Lipkins car slowed for traffic ahead and was struck by the bus.

Injured in the Lipkins car were the driver; passengers Banita Johnson, 40; Daronita Donelson, 13; Zecarri Chea, 7 months; Damarion Huggins, 2; Darnell Welch, 23, and Diamond Lipkins-Welch, 5, who was sitting on Mr. Welch’s lap in the back seat of the car, the patrol’s report states.

Everyone in the Lipkins auto is from Toledo, troopers said. They were taken to Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay and to Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green.

Troopers said a third vehicle making an improper lane change possibly triggered the chain of events that led to the crash.