Sandra Bethune was one of the lucky ones. She survived the tragic casino bus crash in Mississippi Sunday that left three other South Carolina women dead, including a Eutawville woman.

“I’m just devastated for them,” the Orangeburg woman said of the three families. “That’s the part that gets us the most.”

The bus was carrying 43 people when it flipped over in a median at an intersection in Tunica. Charlotte Carros, 63, of Eutawville; Paula Kemp, 53, of Mount Pleasant and Glenda Stone of Goose Creek all died in the accident, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Carros was the retired former owner of Bells Marina on Lake Marion, said Jennifer Berry, who bought the property with husband Billy and two other men. Carros still lived alone at a home there but had no relatives in the area and traveled often.

“She was a nice person. Outgoing,” Berry said. “She just retired this year when she sold the marina to us. She was just enjoying her retirement.”

Speaking via telephone from her hospital room near Memphis, Tenn., Bethune described the Sunday morning crash as a surreal experience.

“It was just one of those things you see in a movie,” Bethune said. “You don’t ever think it’s ever going to happen to you.”

Sandra and her husband, Jim Bethune, owner of Performance Auto Sales in Orangeburg, had planned to spend a weekend together before school started. The couple had never been on a casino getaway weekend prior to this trip.

“We just wanted to get away for a while,” Jim Bethune said. “It was a great weekend until this.”

On the trip to the airport Sunday, the bus was quiet for the most part, with people sharing small talk about their weekend, the Bethunes said.

But about five to 10 minutes into the trip, something went wrong.

“I thought we were actually making a left turn,” Jim Bethune said. “Next thing I knew, the back end was coming around and we were hydroplaning.”

“It happened so quick,” Sandra said. “He lost control and we just flipped and started sliding sideways.”

When the overturned vehicle stopped, Jim searched through the bus for Sandra. Luggage was strewn about the interior of the vehicle, now laying on its side.

Although Jim Bethune was banged up, Sandra was seriously injured. A cut extending from her elbow to her wrist required 40 stitches to close.

“She’s recuperating now,” Jim said late Monday afternoon. “She’s got a bunch of bruises and a knot on the head.”

“I’m getting a transfusion as we speak,” Sandra said. “I’m pretty much one big bruise, this (the laceration) being the worst.”

The Bethunes believe they were the first to arrive at the hospital. Two couples from Arkansas came upon the crash scene and drove the Bethunes to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Desoto.

Jim then called the couple’s two high school-age sons, Kyle and Brett.

Thirty-one people were treated and released from a hospital after the Sunday morning wreck, said Valerie Morris, a spokeswoman for Harrah’s. She said seven people who were on the bus remained hospitalized Monday.

Sandra hopes she will be released in a day or two so the couple can return to South Carolina by week’s end.

Ironically, during the trip to the hotel, Sandra had asked her husband about a door on the bus’s roof.

“I asked him on Friday what the door on top was there for,” she said. “It’s funny. That was the same door we would be crawling out of Sunday.”

n T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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