Members of Swollen Members’ entourage were able to avoid tragedy this past Tuesday (December 14) by escaping their tour bus before its destruction from an oncoming train.
The bizarre accident happened on Monday (December 14), when the group was in Colorado Springs, CO following their completion of the Canadian leg of their tour.
Sometime past midnight, the bus became stuck on a railway crossing due to lack of traction. Several minutes later, the signals flashed and the rail barrier lowered to indicate a train’s arrival.
According to the tour’s manager, BJ Smith, everyone present had less than a minute to flee from certain death.
“Everyone is lucky to be alive. Everything happened so fast we didn’t have time to do anything but get off the bus,” Smith told AllHipHop.com. “From the time the bus got stuck, to the second the train impacted it, was under three minutes. As soon as we heard the railway barrier go down we could hear a train was coming, so we literally had 45 seconds to get off the bus and get as far out of the way as possible. If anyone else would have been on the bus with us they would have been dead because there wouldn’t have been enough time to wake them up and get off the bus.”
In the wake of two straight months of touring, core group members Madchild, Prevail, Trey Nyce, and Rob the Viking had flown home before the incident.
The remaining entourage and tour manager BJ Smith were using the bus to make it back to California.
After viewing pictures, Prevail noted the impact point was on the band’s sleeping quarters.
“This morning I got news that our tour bus, ‘The Black Pearl’, got hit by a train in Colorado Springs. Luckily everyone was able to get off just in time, because the bus was totally destroyed,” Prevail explained to AllHipHop.com. “The spot where the train impacted was where we would have been sleeping if we had we been on the bus. It’s scary to think how fragile life can be when something like this happens.”
The bus caught fire after the train collision, and emergency crews worked for 4 hours to subdue the blaze and clear the scene.
The train only suffered minimal damage to the front engine, and was able to complete its route following a police verification of no injuries.
The city’s Traffic Engineer, Dave Krauth, confirmed that an investigation is ongoing, and the city is seeking ways to improve the intersection’s safety.
Swollen Member’s latest album, Armed to the Teeth, was released on October 27.
