'Fun' tour of Seattle turns into nightmare for students

Seattle - The collision on the Aurora Bridge left a tangled mess of twisted metal, shattered glass and blood, witnesses said.

A fun day designed to introduce new international college students to Seattle turned into a nightmare when a "duck boat" tour vehicle collided into their charter bus on a busy bridge, killing four students and injuring dozens.
Rujia Xie and other North Seattle College students were on their way to the city's iconic Pike Place Market and Safeco Field for new student orientation events Thursday when she heard the crash from the back of the bus.
She smelled gas and felt glass falling on her face. She and others jumped from the bus.
Travelling in the opposite direction, two Philadelphia friends on a road trip across the country, Brad Volm and Bradley Sawhill, were cruising over Lake Union when they said they saw the duck boat's left tire "lock up" as it swerved into the charter bus, t-boning it. Their SUV hit another truck head-on, but they escaped injuries.
"It all happened so fast. I got out of my car, and there were just bodies, just everywhere. People lying in the street," Volm said.
The collision on the Aurora Bridge, which carries one of the city's main north-south highways over the lake, left a tangled mess of twisted metal, shattered glass and blood, witnesses said.
Authorities say 51 people were taken to area hospitals. At Harborview Medical Center, two people are in critical condition and 10 are in serious condition in intensive care, said Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for Harborview and the University of Washington Medical Center, in a statement Thursday night. Three other people are in satisfactory condition, Gregg said.
There was no immediate word about the cause of the crash, which involved a military-style tour bus that can also be operated on water. Initial reports described the accident as a head-on collision.