Car Crashes Into College Swim Team Bus Amid High-Speed Chase

A high-speed car chase in Cleveland, Ohio resulted in a crash with a bus carrying the Baldwin Wallace University swim team last Saturday.

The bus was headed eastbound on I-480 around 11AM on January 28, and was being driven by the program’s head coach Laura Demaline. She told a local news station Cleveland 19 that nobody in the bus was injured.

“In an attempt to pass the car that was to the left of the bus and myself, they swerved and lost control of their vehicle,” Demaline said. She said police later informed them about the chase.

“They hit the median on the left side of the highway and their car careened across the four lanes between my car and our bus.”

The team was making the 30 mile drive to the other side of the Cleveland metropolitan area to race Notre Dame College and Frostburg State. The team was cleared by first responders, swapped buses, and continued on their journey.

“We made it,” Demaline said. “A little late, but that’s okay.”

The car was being driven by two teens who were fleeing the police. The occupants of the car were a 16-year-old Cleveland boy and his 15-year-old girlfriend. Fairview Park, Ohio police say that the girlfriend ran away from home in an attempt to escape pre-trial court-monitored home detention from a previous charge.

The two were driving a 2021 Gray Kia Forte that Fairview Park Police spotted speeding down I-480 with the rear window broken out. The officer radioed for assistance and two units from the North Olmsted Police Department responded.

The police report says that the driver lost control of the curve on a curve of the interstate when it clipped a median before crossing four lanes of traffic, clipping the rear of the bus, and hitting the retaining wall.

The suspects fled on foot; the female was arrested 10 minutes after the crash, and the male was arrested an hour later.

On the women’s side, Notre Dame College beat Baldwin Wallace women 137-123, and Frostburg State won their leg of the tri 165-96. For the men, Notre Came College won 145-117 and Frostburg State won 171-91.

The Yellow Jackets are back in action at the four-day Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Wednesday-Saturday, February 15-18 at the Ocasek Natatorium in University of Akron. Preliminary action begins each day at 10 a.m. with finals to be held each night at 6 p.m.

Baldwin-Wallace is an NCAA Division III university.