Bus crash in PA kills 2, OP native on board

CARLISLE, PA (WIVB) - State Police in Pennsylvania say a charter bus carrying the Seton Hill University women's lacrosse team to a tournament crashed Saturday, killing two people.

News 4 has learned, one of the players who was on the bus is a 2010 graduate of Orchard Park High School. Elizabeth Otwell is a junior at Seton Hill, a Catholic college near Pittsburgh.

Otwell and her teammates were traveling east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to Millersville University near Lancaster, PA, when their bus went off the freeway. Police said the bus hit a guiderail and went through 70 yards of grass before hitting a tree.

The crash happened around 9 a.m. near the Carlisle interchange. That's about 20 miles east of Harrisburg, the state capital. Twenty-three players and three coaches were on the bus at the time.

The bus driver, 61-year-old Anthony Guaetta, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities said a total of 22 people were taken to area hospitals to be treated for their injuries.

According to Megan Silverstrim, a spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety, "[The injuries] range from minor to severe. A few folks have been treated and released, but we do have individuals still being treated at the hospitals."

The team's head coach, 30-year-old Kristina Quigley, was flown to Penn State Hershey Medical Center, where she later died. Quigley was six months pregnant with her second child.

Seton Hill University released a statement saying the campus community is "deeply saddened... mourning the loss of Quigley and her unborn son."

Seton Hill's Director of Media Relations, Kary Coleman, said the college is making grief counselors available, and will hold a memorial Mass for Quigley Sunday night in the University's chapel.

Otwell was treated in the ER at Harrisburg Hospital. Her injuries were not serious, and she was released Saturday afternoon.

The bus was chartered through Mlaker Charter and Tours, a bus company located in Davidsville, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which regulates bus companies in that state, said Mlaker is up-to-date on its inspections, which include safety checks of both vehicles and drivers.

Pennsylvania State Police are still trying to determine what caused the deadly accident.

"The bus did strike a guardrail. We still have investigators, our crash reconstructionists, our forensics team... they're still at the scene right now, collecting evidence," Trooper Rob Hicks told reporters at a press conference Saturday afternoon.