Havoc bus involved in accident

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – For the second time in less than a week, a minor league hockey team was involved in a travel accident. Early Friday morning the team bus of the Huntsville Havoc was involved in a crash along Interstate 65 between Montgomery and Birmingham. The team was returning from Columbus, Georgia where they had played the Columbus Cottonmouths Thursday night. Huntsville won the game 4-3. The crash occurred at 12:30 A.M. near mile marker 211 in Clanton, which is in Chilton County about mid way between Montgomery and Birmingham. According to Huntsville V.P. of Business Operations Ashley Balch, he was told the bus crossed the median into the inside shoulder of the

southbound lane and then back across to the inside shoulder of the northbound lane. Along the way, the bus hit one drainage ditch, sending it airborn before coming to rest in the mud near a second ditch. None of the 22 people on board were seriously injured. The bus driver, who was complaining of dizzyness, was transported to Chilton Medical Center as a precaution. “Myself and a few other people were in the back sleeping and we woke up because it started banging us around,” Havoc equipment manager Adam Waddell told WAFF-TV in Huntsville. “There’s a handle on the top bunks that let us grab on. Actually, one of the guys, Billy Tibbetts, was yelling ‘Hold on boys’. Everyone that had one of those was grabbing for it.” Emergency personnel transported the team and staff to Clanton Fire Station No. 2 where they waited approximately two hours for another bus to pick them up. They arrived in Huntsville early Friday morning. Balch said that the team is very grateful to Clanton Police Chief Brian Stilwell, the Chilton County Sheriff’s Department and the Clanton Fire Department for their assistance during the ordeal. He said the team will be sending jerseys and other items as a thank you and hope to have members of the three departments up to Huntsville for a game in the near future. Earlier this week, the Albany River Rats were involved in a bus crash on Interstate 90 in Western Massachusetts on their way home from an AHL game in Lowell, Mass. Tonight’s game between the Havoc and the Richmond Renegades at the Von Braun Center set to start at 8:35 P.M. CST will go on as scheduled. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com