Empty tour bus rolls
over tourist twice

The female visitor is hospitalized
by the unmanned vehicle

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> A North Carolina woman is in critical condition after an empty midsize tour bus accidentally rolled over her twice Monday at the former Kaimu Bay, south of Hilo, police said.

Following the 2:50 p.m. accident, Sandy Tschopp, 54, of Durham, N.C., was flown to Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.

The accident took place near the end of Highway 137, which used to make a semicircle around Kaimu Bay until lava crossed the road and filled in the bay in 1990.

Tschopp was talking with vendors at a small stand at the road, police said.

Near the vendors is a driveway leading up an incline to Verna's V Drive In, where a 27-passenger Polynesian Adventure Tours bus was parked. Tschopp was not a passenger in the bus, police said.

The bus rolled down the incline, hitting Tschopp and running over her, police said. The bus continued rolling, reached an embankment, stopped and rolled backward and over Tschopp again, police said. The registered weight of the bus is 13,740 pounds, police said.

An employee at the Kona office of Polynesian Adventure Tours said she received a report from the driver, but she declined to comment on the accident.

The county Fire Department sent an ambulance to the scene and dispatched the county medical helicopter, stationed on the other side of the island near Waikoloa.

The ambulance was transporting Tschopp to Hilo Hospital when the helicopter met it en route, a Fire Department member said. The helicopter took her the rest of the way to the hospital. She was later flown to Queen's.