Bus-truck collision injures 18 in Georgia

The front end of the bus was severely damaged in the wreck.

AUGUSTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The driver of a Greyhound bus was in serious condition and 17 other passengers were injured after their bus rear-ended a tractor-trailer on Interstate 20 in eastern Georgia early Sunday.

The 3.a.m. accident, about 40 miles west of Augusta, closed the westbound lanes of the interstate for two hours and slowed traffic for another three. The bus driver, 40-year-old Antonio White, of Atlanta, apparently fell asleep and ran up on the tractor-trailer, the Georgia State Patrol said.

White's foot was severed by the crash, Trooper John Freeman said. He was in serious condition Sunday at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

Seventeen of the 29 passengers board the Greyhound were treated for cuts and bruises at local hospitals, State Patrol officials said. Trucker Paul Moffett, 56, of Joplin, Missouri, was not injured in the crash.

The Dallas-bound bus originated in Philadelphia. White was a driver for Southeastern Stages Inc., which contracts with Greyhound to provide drivers on some routes. He had taken over in Columbia,S.C. and was to have driven to Atlanta.

All westbound lanes of the interstate were closed until about 5 a.m., when police were able to open one lane.The road was not cleared completely until about 8 a.m., police said.