Swollen Members Tour Bus Struck By Train, No Casualties

Early Tuesday morning (December 15), Canadian hip-hop act Swollen Members’ tour bus—nicknamed “The Black Pearl”—was hit by a train in Colorado Springs, Colorado while traveling back from Canada.

The National Post reported that all members of the group were not onboard at the time, as they had traveled ahead by plane before the accident occurred. Unfortunately, the group’s road manager, BJ Smith, and three roadies were on the bus when it got stuck on the tracks due to being high centered.

All the passengers were able to escape before the train barreled through the bus. “Everything happened so fast we didn’t have time to do anything but get off the bus,” said Smith in a statement. “From the time the bus got stuck, to the second the train impacted it, was under three minutes.”

Smith continued, “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.”

Upon hearing about the accident, Swollen Member MC Prevail said, “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." —Amber McKynzie