2 Seriously Hurt in Tour Bus Crash in Halifax

HALIFAX, N.C. — A woman was in serious condition Friday at Pitt Memorial Hospital with injuries suffered Thursday night when a tour bus returning to Martin County crashed into a tractor-trailer on a dark road just north of Halifax.

Patsy Purvis was in serious condition, a Pitt spokesman said. She was among five patients airlifted to the Greenville Hospital. Two were in good condition or were still being evaluated and two had been released, a spokesman said.

Sylvia Day, one of the tour leaders, was flown to the Medical College of Virginia Hospital in Richmond with serious injuries, the Highway Patrol said. The hospital said Friday it had no record of her, however.

Altogether, 30 of the 53 people on the bus were taken to hospitals, most of them to Halifax Regional Hospital.  Reports just after the crash, which was reported at 7:15 p.m., said 50 people had been taken to hospitals, but the number was revised Friday.

Joseph Scott Rozier of Halifax, the driver of the truck, which was backing into a driveway off N.C. 125, was cited for improper backing, troopers said. They said the road was dark and bus driver Billy Lovette could not have seen the truck.

The bus owned by Sylvia and Iris' Tours Inc. of Williamston was returning from Atlantic City, N.J., and other stops on a tour that began Feb. 27, police said.