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DINWIDDIE, Va. — The driver of a Miley Cyrus tour bus was killed Friday when the bus overturned, but the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star wasn’t on board, Virginia State Police said.
Sgt. Thomas Molnar said the bus ran off the left side of Interstate 85, struck an embankment and overturned. The accident occurred around 8:15 a.m. in Dinwiddie County, about 40 miles south of Richmond. Speed and weather weren’t considered factors.
The driver, William G. Douglas, 53, of Austin, Texas, died at the scene, police said.
Marty Zilio, 48, of Canada, was injured in the crash and treated at a local hospital. He was one of nine members of Cyrus’ production crew who were riding in the bus. They escaped the crashed bus through the front windshield.
The Cyrus family said on her Web site that they were “deeply saddened by the loss of Bill ’Uncle Bill’ Douglas” and that he would be missed.
“Members of our tour are like members of our family,” the statement said.
A wrecker arrived late Friday morning to haul away the black and maroon luxury tour bus, which was on its side in a ditch off the highway where it had apparently skidded for several hundred feet.
Slideshow: Miley Cyrus The bus was hauled by the wrecker up to the next exit off I-85, where two other tour buses and members of the tour were waiting. About two dozen members of the tour, some still wearing pajama bottoms, began transferring backpacks and laptops from the wrecked bus into two other buses parked outside a restaurant. They declined to speak to reporters.
Molnar said the bus was one of four traveling together after the singer’s two-show stint Wednesday and Thursday in Long Island, N.Y. The group was heading to Greensboro, N.C., where she is scheduled to perform Sunday. Cyrus was not traveling with the group at the time of the crash, authorities said.
Miley Cyrus is the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, who also appears on the family friendly Disney sitcom “Hannah Montana.”
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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