Tragedy Strikes Corrections Officers in Rural Montana

At 5:30 this morning, a bus carrying 26 corrections officers and staff members of the Montana State Prison hit a deer; the bus swerved and rolled over several times before coming to rest in a roadside ditch. The COs had parked their personal vehicles in a parking lot reserved for them just outside Anaconda, Montana and rode the transport bus to nearby Deer Lodge where the prison is located. They were part of the day shift crew, on their way to work. Local Emergency Medical Services and police officers responded quickly to the scene where the COs and the bus driver were being stabilized.

The Montana State Prison's Medical Director, Dr. Tristan Kohut, was notified of the accident and immediately went to the scene. "I saw that the EMS team had already done everything possible to stabilize the injured and take them to nearby hospitals in Deer Lodge, Anaconda and Butte. Several were taken by Life Flight to a larger hospital in Missoula due to their critical conditions that would require extensive surgery," Dr. Kohut stated.

Dispatched by the Warden to the hospital in Deer Lodge, Dr. Kohut assisted in treating the injured COs. Family members poured into the hospital seeking information on their loved ones. They were reassured that the COs were being expertly treated by several physicians. At all the hospitals where the injured COs were being treated, off-duty COs and the prison's medical personnel came to support their fallen comrades and worried families.

One staff member of the prison was killed in the wreck; Sonja Ryan, age 56, had been an MSP administrative employee since 1981. "I think everyone else will make it," said Dr. Kohut. "But there's no way to be certain. Those with severe head injuries are still critical. We're all praying that no other lives will be lost." Several of the injured COs were more concerned about their jobs than their health, expressing dismay that they could not fulfill their duties and that off-duty COs would have to be called into work the day shift.