FAST ACTION ABOARD USC TEAM BUS AVERTS TRAGEDY

The bus carrying the University of Southern California women's basketball team had just left the Spokane airport Wednesday night and was rumbling toward Interstate 90 when the driver slumped over the steering wheel.

"Hey man, are you alright?" head coach Fred Williams yelled.

He wasn't.

So while the bus rolled along aimlessly at 45 mph, Williams bolted to his feet, grabbed the steering wheel and groped for the brake. Two assistant coaches untangled the unconscious driver's feet from the steering column and yanked him into the aisle.

Thirty terrifying seconds later, the big blue bus trimmed in white and red lurched to rest just short of an overpass at U.S. Highway 2 and I-90.

The driver, 64-year-old Jim Anderson of Lewiston, later died of a heart attack at Deaconess Medical Center.

A few more seconds on the highway, however, and the bus could have tumbled over the overpass railing, killing all 22 Lady Trojan players and staff, said Trooper Bob Watkins of the Washington State Patrol.

"It was good teamwork," Watkins said. "Just a few more feet and they probably would have gone overboard onto I-90.

"I couldn't believe how perfectly they parked it on the right shoulder," the trooper said. "It was like they had practiced it."

Team officials said it was like a real-life, slow-motion scene from the adventure-bus film "Speed."

Other motorists, oblivious to the terror in the right lane, cruised past while players screamed and coaches worked frantically to regain control of the bus.

"I was scared, but somehow we all managed to act without really thinking," head coach Williams said.

When the ordeal ended, Thursday night's basketball game against the WSU Cougars in Pullman didn't seem that important, said Conni Shrope, assistant sports information director.

"One minute it was, `Hi, my name is Jim' and all friendly at the airport. Ten minutes later, he was lying on the floor of the bus. It's scary," Shrope said. "It definitely makes you think and appreciate what you have."

Student-trainer Marianne Patino was making her first road trip when suddenly she found herself doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the driver.

"Obviously it's not something you expect to happen, and I was scared," the sophomore said, "but I guess I automatically shifted into just doing my job."

After Fire District 10 arrived from Airway Heights and an ambulance carted Anderson to the hospital, the president of Northwestern Stage Lines drove the team to Longhorn Barbecue.

While waiting to eat their dinner, players cried, prayed and called their parents.

"We were all praying," said the bus line president, Cleto Achabal.

Just before the driver left to pick up the team that evening, he spent 15 minutes chatting with Achabal and gloating over his nine grandchildren, the company president said.

Earlier in the day, Anderson joked to Northwestern receptionist Dawn Latronica that she had his permission to leave work early. "He was an incredible man," Latronica said. "Just a big sweetheart."

Anderson was best known as the former owner and operator of the Lewiston Speedway in the 1960s and '70s, said his son, Dan.

Williams, who was named USC's head coach this year after a decade as an associate and assistant, was so shaken that he didn't sleep Wednesday night.

Few people on the bus did.

"No one wanted to be in their rooms by themselves," Shrope said.

Players kept their televisions on all night, she said, while some staff members went next door to the Denny's restaurant at 3 a.m. to talk.

"Looking over my seat and seeing that steering wheel with no one behind it, that's just something I won't ever forget," said first-year assistant coach John Henderson.

He and part-time assistant Frank Scott managed to free the driver's legs and pull him aside, so the head coach could take his seat.

"This really makes you think about your own mortality," Henderson said. "It makes you call home and let everyone know that you love them."

"It makes you realize that basketball is not that important and neither are a lot of things that happen to you every day," Scott said.

"It'll be a long time before I forget that a man lost his life right in front of me."

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.