‘It was like a living nightmare’

Bus passenger describes night spent stranded by snow storm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Nearly 100 passengers, many of them college students, spent the night on a packed Megabus after it became stranded in 20 inches of snow on Interstate 80 in Eastern Pennsylvania.

“It was like a living nightmare. I haven’t had anything to eat in 24 hours,” said Keren Kedem, a 21-year-old University of Pittsburgh senior. “It was chaos and they weren’t prepared for inclement weather and we shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place.”

A powerful Nor’easter, which produced high winds, flooding and snow along a 1,000-mile stretch of the East Coast, killed seven people.

Megabuses scheduled to depart later Friday morning from Pittsburgh were canceled, Ms. Kedem said, who added that at least one passenger had a panic attack.

“The girl across from me was hysterical,” Ms. Kedem said.

The college senior, who was traveling home to see her family in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was aware of bad weather in the Northeast when she boarded at 9:15 a.m. Friday but the Megabus driver “didn’t know about the weather at all. That was pretty concerning to me,” Ms. Kedem said.

The bus, which halted around 3:30 p.m. Friday, was hot at first, then grew cold. There was no water or blankets on board and her dinner was melted Girl Scout cookies, Ms. Kedem said.

The Megabus had traveled on Interstate 80 to State College, Pa., to pick up Penn State University students. Passengers ate around 2:45 p.m.

The Megabus had a bathroom, Ms. Kedem said, but the lack of water was a problem because many passengers were thirsty and needed to take medication.

“In this weather, I think it’s unconscionable that the bus company wouldn’t have two cases of water on the bus,” said the young woman’s mother, Lisa Hurwitz-Kedem, a teacher who lives in Dobbs Ferry.

Interstate 80 was closed until 7 a. m. Saturday when motorists were allowed to resume driving. Trucks and buses, however, were still halted and did not start moving until shortly after 8 a.m.

“I was taken aback by how horrible the roads were in Pennsylvania,” Ms. Kedem said. “No one was coming to help us. We were told that the National Guard was coming. We didn’t see anyone. I just felt completely unsafe. I ended up rereading my college essays because I was so bored.”

The young woman’s parents considered driving to a travel stop in Columbia, N.J., where the Megabus arrived Saturday around 11:10 a.m. The travel stop, a hub for Megabus, was closed and had no power.

“They were supposed to have a driver waiting for them at the Columbia rest stop,” Ms. Hurwitz-Kedem said. Instead, passengers sat waiting for a new driver to arrive.

Ms. Hurwitz-Kedem said the strong Nor’easter forced schools in Dobbs Ferry to close midday on Friday.

“We went home because of the high winds,” Ms. Hurwitz-Kedem said.

Those same high winds blew across Interstate 80 where her daughter worried the double-decker Megabus would tip over. She saw several large trucks jackknife on Interstate 80.

When the Megabus began moving at 8:15 a.m. Saturday, Ms. Kedem said, passengers saw a west-bound Megabus “completely stuck” on the other side of Interstate 80.

Cell phone service was unavailable for six hours and the bus had no Wi-Fi.

The bus driver, Ms. Kedem said, “was great about keeping us updated. He kept reminding us to keep our seat belts on. He was overworked. He drove for 24 hours straight. All our lives were in this one guy’s hands.”

“It’s not just that we were stranded. We were stranded because of the negligence. Megabus wasn’t doing what they should have done to protect us. I would rather the bus had been canceled. Our bus driver told us late last night that driving was like driving on glass,” Ms. Kedem said.

“As a parent, I’m thinking that they didn’t do their due diligence in checking the weather. They sent it into 20 inches of snow. I just feel the bus should have never left,” Ms. Hurwitz-Kedem said. “I don’t think anyone would want to be in a Megabus for 28 hours.”

Sean Hughes, director of corporate affairs for Megabus, said all passengers on the Megabus bound for New York City will receive a refund.

Mr. Hughes said the safety of drivers and passengers is a top priority for Megabus and that the company monitors weather conditions by using The Weather Channel and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I can certainly understand their frustration. Route I-80 was closed,” Mr. Hughes said. “There was an accident on Route I-80 that caused a two-hour traffic back-up,” he said, adding that the accident happened between 3 and 4 p.m. on Friday.

A relief driver had to travel through bad weather, road closures and traffic to reach the New Jersey rest stop, Mr. Hughes said, and the Megabus arrived in New York City Saturday between noon and 1 p.m.

Ms. Kedem said that the driver told passengers that he did not have GPS.

“All of our buses are tracked by GPS 24/7 365. We have a center in Paramus, New Jersey with big screen TVs that monitor all our buses. Does the driver have a GPS sitting with a phone in front of him? No,” Mr. Hughes said.

Drivers can always contact a dispatcher if they become lost or if a road is closed, Mr. Hughes said, adding that some short cuts are not open to Megabuses because of their size.