CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Salvation Army will investigate before making a decision about the future of one of the charity's Charlotte bus drivers.
More than a half dozen people were sent to the hospital after a crash early Wednesday morning involving a Salvation Army bus and a car.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police accident report shows the bus driver turned left from East Fifth Street onto Hawthorne Lane into an oncoming car. It happened a block from Presbyterian Hospital. Six women on the bus were hurt, including Victoria Rasberry.
"My head went against the seat, and when I came back I hit the window," she said.
Barbara Duncan was also on the bus, and is now on crutches.
"I didn't even know how bad I was hurt because I was such in shock," she said.
The woman driving the car was also injured.
"She was trying to go around the car that was going straight, and she just totaled the woman's car out," said Antoinette Carter, who was also injured on the bus.
The bus was on its way from a women's shelter to the main Salvation Army shelter on Spratt Street.
Several of the women on the bus told Channel 9 the driver was talking on her cellphone when the crash happened. However, Salvation Army spokeswoman Deronda Metz disputed that claim.
"That was our first concern too. Could this accident have been avoided? We checked her phone log and there was no indication that she was on the phone," Metz said.
Two weeks ago, the same driver was involved in an incident in the shelter parking lot. She backed the bus into a parked car.
Duncan was there that time, too.
"I was on the bus when the same driver had a wreck last week. So it's kind of disappointing that they're not doing anything about it," she said.
Metz said the charity will do an investigation to determine what happens next. Channel 9 was told the driver has worked for the charity for more than a decade and has asked not to drive the bus again following this accident.
"She doesn't feel comfortable driving the bus. She doesn't want to drive anymore," Metz said.
None of the injuries on the bus was serious.