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Pope Francis Leaves Washington; Deadly Accident in Seattle; Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 24, 2015 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:00:01]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: This triage situation that's now been set up right next to these two that, the duck boat and the bus.

I mean, talk me through. I'm seeing so many first-responders, firefighters. When they had a wider shot, I must have counted like 10 fire trucks all responding to this scene.

Priority obviously are those who are injured and critically. What's happening right now on the bridge?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL: So, I think the key word here is what you just said a second ago, which is triage.

When first-responders get there, they have to assess the situation and they have to figure out where the most critically injured people are. At the same time, you are going to have officers that are -- that are going to be controlling the traffic, because, as they figure out how bad this accident actually is, they are going to have to get those people to the hospital. At the same time, they're having to keep the city flowing at the same time.

This becomes a real, I wouldn't say standardized, but law enforcement has a way that they do standardize the way they react to these things and control the city. But as soon as they start -- as first- responders start pulling people out, they have to start looking at the injured. This looks -- I'm looking at the picture of this.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Look at that bus. Look at that bus, Jonathan. That whole -- almost it looks like the left side is shattered and gone.

GILLIAM: Yes, I'm not sure how fast they were going in this.

We have seen accidents across the United States with these different tour buses. I'm not saying that the bus is at fault here, but we have a couple of problems here. It looks like potentially speed and then also these duck boats are open canopy. Sometimes, they don't even have a canopy on. If somebody doesn't have a seat belt on these duck boats, they literally could be thrown out. That's a major problem.

BALDWIN: I'm just getting some new information. Harborview Medical Center, as we mentioned, that is the hospital

anticipating a number of these who are injured. This nursing supervisor has now told CNN they are expecting 25 patients with unknown injuries.

So, I'm trying to understand. This must be such a challenge for these first-responders, Jonathan, because here they are and I don't even know how many people -- I don't know if the bus was full or the duck boat was full. But you have to anticipate they are dealing with a number of people who are injured, pulling them out, as we're seeing here on stretchers, on backboards.

How do you quickly assess? Who is most injured and how do you get them out as quickly as possible?

GILLIAM: Well, typically, if somebody can talk in an accident situation, if they are actually responding to questions, then you know that you can triage those people down the line. If it's a broken leg, that's different than somebody who is completely knocked out.

You have to then look at that person and say, are they breathing, and then triage that person to a certain level to try to get them out of there. You look for head injuries, you look for profuse bleeding. But really if somebody can talk to you, then they can sit there for a minute while you get the other people out.

One great thing about first-responders is that they deal day in and day out with accidents and they have good communications with the hospitals. So, as they are actually going through and triaging these people, the first-responders, the firemen, the paramedics, they are letting the hospitals know this is what we have and this is what we're bringing to you so that they actually can be prepared for those numbers of people that are coming.

BALDWIN: When they took the wide shot, I haven't seen that many ambulances and fire trucks on a scene in quite awhile.

Jonathan, stay with me.

Peter, let me just bring you back in as they're staying on the steady shot of the bus. Yes, speed could of course be a factor. It's just really too soon to tell. What do you see when you look at this awful scene?

PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN MONEY: When I look at that, it's how much to tell how much the damage on that bus might have been done by the firefighters who would be going in to get people out.

But that bus -- the duck boat, of course, has a very long front overhand. The front end sticks out a long way. Looks like that might have gone into the bus, but it's also important to these are older vehicles, not necessarily designed -- considered about -- to be driving on modern highways and on roadways. These were military transport vehicles, not designed to be necessarily sharing traffic.

BALDWIN: OK. I'm being told we have some newer pictures also from the scene. This is what you're looking at on the right-hand side. So, obviously, these are ground level shots, first-responders, shattered glass, the triage area, the backboards, all responding to this.

If you're just joining us here, it's a breaking situation and an awful situation on this bridge. This is the Highway 99 Aurora Bridge in the Seattle, Washington, area. The bridge totally closed down because of this accident between essentially it's a duck boat and a charter bus right there in the middle of your screen.

And there's been a triage area that's been quickly set up by these first-responders to treat the victims. How many victims? How many people were injured? We don't know. What we do know is this. I have got some numbers for you at this early hour.

[15:05:03]

We have been told there have been at least two people who have died. Nine people are critically injured. And this medical center who is receiving a lot of these patients, the Harborview Medical Center, they are telling CNN they are expecting 25 patients with unknown injuries.

So, bringing those injured out on backboards because who knows what sort of back, spine, neck injuries someone might have suffered because of this collision, which clearly was severe when you look at the fact that really much of the -- from my view, the left side of that charter bus is shattered and gone.

Questions as far as how many people were on either mode of transportation, obviously questions as far as seat belts in either the bus or the duck boat. But we have seen tremendous first-responder, fire truck, ambulance presence here on the scene.

I know have Peter Valdes-Dapena with me and I also have Jonathan Gilliam here.

And, Jonathan, you have been looking at these pictures with us, the triage right there to pay most attention to those who are most seriously injured and get them out on stretchers and get them to hospitals. It's just -- I'm almost out of words to describe what we're looking at.

GILLIAM: Well, today, Brooke, one of the things that I'm seeing here in the front of the bus, you see a tire on the ground. It looks to me like the front of that bus is basically almost ripped off.

You're also seeing other vehicles that have crashed. So, looking at this and trying to assess what I can, it just looks like speed was involved with this. Of course, the faster you're going, the more violent the injuries are going to be. I'm just thankful that one of these vehicles didn't go off that bridge. That would have been a guaranteed loss of life at higher numbers that what you're having.

But as you can see the pictures here where they have the rescuers laying people out, the way they triage them is really what ends up saving a lot of lives when you have injuries that can be profound. You can tell, because you can waste time on people who could survive even though they have major broken bones vs. another person that may have internal injuries.

And that's where the expertise of these paramedics and these firefighters really come through because they are able to quickly look at these things, these injuries and get these people to the hospital fast that need that care quickly.

BALDWIN: Peter, how common -- when you're looking at -- this is a bridge clearly over a body of water in the Seattle area. How often do accidents on bridges like these happen?

VALDES-DAPENA: Accidents on bridges happen certainly as much as anywhere else happen.

One challenge you have in a situation like this is there's no runoff. There's nowhere to go. If something happens in front of you, there's no way you're going to drive off the side of the road or onto the shoulder. There's else to go. So, if something may have happened here, and this is pure conjecture at this point, just looking at images, that caused one of the large vehicles to have to swerve. It looks like the duck boat probably swerved into the bus.

Perhaps something happened in front of them, and again just nowhere to go, except in the water.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We just don't know. We don't know. It's still so early.

We're waiting for a news conference to happen any moment now into what happened here. Again, at least two people confirmed dead, nine critically injured, 25 patients expected at a local hospital with unknown injuries here. News conference happening, we will obviously take that live.

Also, we're anticipating the departure of Pope Francis, leaving Washington, D.C. Crowds lined up to say their goodbyes in our nation's capital before he heads northward to New York. Breaking news coverage continues after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:12:25]

BALDWIN: Breaking news here on CNN. We're covering a deadly collision on this bridge in the Seattle, Washington, area.

A member of the -- a spokesperson for the Seattle Fire Department is briefing the media. Let's take a listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

LT. SUE STANGL, SEATTLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Four vehicles that were involved in this. As you know, it was an amphibious duck boat vs. a bus. That's where most of the significant injuries came from. From that, two people died from their injuries from that incident.

We transported nine and nine are having critical injuries. They were transported by a medic unit to area hospitals. And then we have 12, luckily, with non-life-threatening injuries and they also were transported. We looked at approximately 50 patients that we evaluated. And these are the final numbers that we have. .

QUESTION: Which hospital is going to be able to handle this, Harborview, right?

STANGL: Yes.

So this is a multi-casualty incident. And so we have plans in place to handle something like this. So, Harborview is going to be handling all the tragic trauma-type injuries.

QUESTION: What are the challenges of getting folks out of the vehicle (OFF-MIKE)

STANGL: Well, when you arrive, first of all, it's sometimes challenging just getting to the incident because of the traffic being blocked on Aurora.

Once the firefighters were there, we actually do a lot of training in this particular area. We had multiple firefighters that are on scene. We have a total of almost 90. We called mutual aid. We have got help from Shoreline as well to help with our transportation.

So some of the challenges is just the pure immensity of the incident and the amount of people that need our help simultaneously.

QUESTION: Any idea what caused this at this point?

STANGL: No, obviously, we don't have any of that information.

And Seattle Police Department did inform me that obviously it's going to be -- Aurora Bridge is closed for hours as they do their investigation. And they will be the ones that will be determining exactly what caused this.

QUESTION: How do you deal with the emotion? When I got here, I saw people crying and praying. That must make your jobs a little bit more difficult in some ways, sort of crowd control. Tell me about that.

STANGL: You know what? I think our firefighters are really action- oriented. And when they see something that needs to be done, that's their focus. OK, we need to get this patient to Harborview, and that's the focus on that.

Sometimes, the more emotional stuff sometimes comes out a little bit later. But right now on scene, the incident and what it entails and what is asked of the firefighters, those are the easy parts, because we're really-action oriented. And this is what we train for.

[15:15:12]

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

STANGL: I don't know exactly, but my understanding, the majority of the significant injuries were from the patients that were on the bus.

QUESTION: From what? Sorry?

STANGL: From the bus. The significant injuries were mostly from the charter bus.

QUESTION: Do you know the basics of what happened, who was heading north, who was heading south?

STANGL: I do not.

From the firefighters' standpoint, we really are just focusing on taking care of those patients that needed our help. A lot of that other information, exactly what happened, how it happened, when it happened, a lot of that is going to come out a little bit later.

Right now, we're still handling some of the patients with the minor injuries. Obviously, we focused all our resources on the ones that are critical. And now we're still getting some of the people with minor injuries off to the hospital.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

STANGL: Correct. Let me go through that again.

We have two dead people. And my understanding, like I said, the majority of the critical incidents -- or the patients were on the bus. My understanding is the two fatalities were two people that were on the charter bus. We have nine with critical injuries.

And at this point, the breakdown from here, I don't know if they were from the duck or the bus.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

STANGL: I don't have gender or ages. And a lot of that information will come out a little bit later.

I just wanted to get some preliminary information to you guys now. And we will do another briefing. In fact, the joint information center is up and running at the EOC. We will be plugging all of our information there. And we can get updated information by contacting the...

(CROSSTALK)

STANGL: ... as well.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

STANGL: I have not heard anything about children, but I did not specifically ask. So, right now, I'm just really concentrating on the critical numbers. I do want to mention again the emergency operating center is up and

running for this level of a significant incident. Obviously, this is going to impact with traffic and of course the ability of firefighters have here on scene.

QUESTION: What are the other two vehicles involved?

STANGL: There were two just passenger vehicles and there might be more. That was just what was obvious from the visual of me walking up.

You had obviously the critical incident of the bus and the amphibious vehicle. And then there were two other vehicles that were obviously in a vehicle collision as well. How it all pertains together, we're going to let the Seattle police figure that out.

QUESTION: Do you have any information on the charter bus?

STANGL: I don't.

And that was a great question. Like I mentioned, our focus really was helping the patients. Some of that other information like who chartered that bus, all that stuff is going to come out a little bit later. And I apologize for not having it at this point.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: We're seeing how they are using those tools, firefighters, to try to get to people. Describe what they are doing.

STANGL: My understanding is that very early on in the incident, they were able to get the majority of the people off the bus.

When I walked by, they were not using tools. I'm not exactly -- I'm sure the video that you're...

BALDWIN: OK. We're going to pull away from Seattle. We will take you back to that scene in just a moment.

But we have to take you to Washington, D.C., and to the roars of the crowds in the final moments here of Pope Francis leaving Washington for New York, heading to Andrews Air Force Base. Let's just -- let's listen.

[15:22:16]

BALDWIN: All right. And he is off back in the Fiat to, it sounded almost like cheers like you would hear at a soccer stadium.

We know he is Argentine and loves his soccer. And the other note, he has a watch. Who knew? Pope Francis checked the time. And he is off to Joint Base Andrews to leave to fly to New York. But, before he leaves, he will address the crowds there at Andrews one final time. And we will take that for you.

Stay with us. You're watching breaking coverage here of the pope leaving Washington, and also the deadly collision in the Seattle, Washington, area.

Stay with CNN. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:00]

BALDWIN: All right, back to Seattle, Washington, and back to just this awful scene here.

It was a duck boat colliding with this charter bus. We know from the fire department that just briefed media two people have died, nine in critical condition, 12 non-life-threatening injuries. All of those folks have been taken to the hospital.

And when you see the bigger picture here, it's a tremendous first- responder presence there. You're looking at the triage area, as the victims are being taken out on those stretchers and backboards, 90, 90 firefighters here on the scene.

And we're just getting a statement from the owner and CEO of the Ride The Ducks company. Brian Tracy told CNN -- quote -- "We are just finding out what is going on and probably won't know more until later. This is tragic. We just hope everyone is OK."

I have got Peter Valdes-Dapena with me. He's a digital correspondent who covers a lot of vehicles, transportation issues here for us, for CNN.com.

And so we were also just talking a bit about the duck boat in particular, wondering whether there are seat belts. And we have confirmed that there aren't.

VALDES-DAPENA: There are not.

Seat belts generally aren't required for this type of vehicle. Remember, this is not, technically speaking, an ordinary passenger vehicle. It's a -- it's sort of like a bus, but it's a truck.

BALDWIN: That goes in the water.

VALDES-DAPENA: It's a truck that can go in the water, as I said, originally designed for combat use in the Second World War, where that sort of thing was handing, take troops right up onto the beach. So, they are not required to have seat belts. This one doesn't have it. They are pretty clear about that with the customers that there are no seat belts.

BALDWIN: OK.

When you look at the pictures really close up, though, you can see half of the bus on -- at least along the left side is just -- it's shattered. Much of it is missing.

Dylan Byers is on the phone. He's one of our media correspondents here at CNN who happens to be in the Seattle area.

Dylan, I don't know how close. I know that they have totally shut off -- this is the Aurora Bridge, shut off traffic both directions, all lanes. What more can you add to this?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: I'm actually on the bridge along with several other members of the media.

I have never seen -- I'm from Seattle -- I have never seen anything like this. The entire bridge is blanketed with ambulances, police cars, fire trucks. As you have already said, two confirmed dead, nine in -- critical injuries.

We spoke to one witness here who is actually a nurse who just happened to be walking over the bridge who described it as a mass tragedy and traumatic experience to witness. So it's -- everyone is sort of standing around in a state of shock.

But the other thing we heard is that the police and ambulances and fire trucks were very quick to the scene and put everyone in triage immediately. So, the response has been top form.

BALDWIN: Ninety -- as we heard the fire department say, 90 firefighters on the scene quickly responding here to this tragedy.

Again, these are closer pictures. And you can see, as we mentioned, just the left side of that bus gone. We're getting more information.

We will be back to this -- this fatal story here in the Seattle area after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)