‘My heart just sank’: Iowa Lakes students mourn after deadly baseball team bus crash
By Abigail Kurten
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ESTHERVILLE, Iowa (KCCI) — Iowa Lakes student William Evans says Wednesday’s accident is the type of thing you see in headlines, not something that happens to people you know.
One person died and more than 30 were injured when a bus carrying Iowa Lakes Community College’s baseball team went off the road Wednesday morning. The team was traveling to Arkansas for a series of games.
Evans, who’s been at Iowa Lakes Community College for less than a year, says the news hit him especially hard when he received a video from his friend who was on the bus wearing a neck brace in the back of an ambulance.
“My heart genuinely just sank, like, it just sank immediately,” he said. “And, you know, our buddy, he sent us the message, like, are you pulling our chain right now? Like, are you joking? But, no.”
He says the accident shocked the just-under 2,000 students on campus.
“It’s actually all that people can talk about,” he said.
Students held a vigil on campus Wednesday evening to mourn the loss of life, but members of the media were asked not to attend.
“Stuff happens and stuff can go wrong. And, you know, it’s important to stay close to your faith,” Evans said. “I really just think that it’s going to bring us closer together as a community and as a school because prayers go out to them.”
At the time of publication, Iowa Lakes has not released any further information on the victims or the deceased pending notification of all families involved, but told KCCI they would share more information on Thursday.
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