A Duke University Medical Center employee was in serious condition Wednesday after a campus bus ran over her left arm and both legs Tuesday morning on Trent Drive.
Jacqueline Walker, a 40-year-old medical secretary in the medical center's pediatric neurology division, stepped off the campus bus around 7:20 a.m. Tuesday, falling in front of the bus as it headed toward Erwin Road. The front wheel of the bus rolled over Walker before the bus could stop.
After the bus came to a halt, Duke Emergency Medical Service workers and members of Duke University Police Department used airbags to lift the bus, freeing Walker and moving her to Duke University Hospital, where her condition was pronounced critical.
The driver of the bus, Henry McNair, has been driving at Duke for 15 years without a blemish on his record. Catherine Reeve, director of parking and transportation services, said McNair was quick to call emergency personnel after the accident. Reeve added that he was "very upset" about Walker's medical condition.
"Our drivers have protocol in terms of calling in emergency services," Reeve said. "[McNair] followed that protocol."
Although McNair has not been accused of driver error, he is currently on paid leave pending the results of DUPD's investigation into the accident.
DUPD Maj. Phyllis Cooper declined to comment on the ongoing investigation headed by Officer Rekaya Eisley, except to note that DUPD had not yet received a statement from Walker and that there would be no official accident report until the investigation had concluded.
Reeve said it was "way too early to say" whether any changes in bus policy would come about as a result of this accident, but she said a passenger falling in the path of a moving bus was an unusual occurrence. "That process [of reviewing policy] takes time," she added.
"I suspect that [Parking and Transportation Services] will examine what happened," said Keith Lawrence, associate director of Duke News and Communications. "I would be surprised if they didn't take a step back and look at their policy."
The University conducted an investigation into the operations of its bus system after a campus bus struck and killed freshman Amy Geissinger in November 1992, also at the intersection of Trent and Erwin. A task force formed after the fatal accident recommended several changes, including the hiring of a full-time transit inspector.
In March 2000, a Durham Area Transit Authority bus struck Ruby Shandilya, Trinity '02, at the West Campus bus stop, fracturing her pelvis.
Reeve said accidents on campus are "very much not the norm" and cited initial training and periodic retraining as reasons for Parking and Transportation's relatively clean accident record.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.