Shands medical reports were just released this evening regarding a student’s frostbitten hand as the result of a 5-minute bus ride from Rawlings Hall to the Reitz Union.
Jeremy Gripp, a 19-year-old UF accounting freshman, turned his hot Gainesville afternoon into an icy torment on Monday after boarding the seemingly painless bus for the first time.
I was just looking for a way to avoid my walk and I thought that the RTS would be a faster and cooler alternative.”
Gripp said. “I had heard that they kept the buses at a pretty low temperature during the day, but this was nothing like what I had expected.”
After walking on to the loaded bus, Gripp found an open pole towards the back and started holding on.
After just a few seconds I knew something was wrong.
I felt an immense stinging pain coming from my hand and when I tried to let go of the pole, it was stuck.” Gripp said.
Students reported that they heard screeching cries for help coming from the back of the bus, but admitted they were too cold to get up and do something.
One student, engineering sophomore Mary Larson, recalls feeling completely helpless during the crisis.
“I heard him yelling out, ‘Help! Somebody get me off of this God forsaken freezer on wheels!’ or something like that, but I was honestly way too cold to even consider getting up.”
Gripp was eventually able to rip himself free of the frozen pole, but by then it was too late. He experienced severe frostbite covering ninety-five percent of his entire hand, and was then rushed to Shands Hospital by other, quicker means of transportation.
There’s a good chance we’ll have to cut it off,”
said one Shands health professional, who claimed they had seen several other cases just like Gripp’s. “It’s a shame to see these innocent kids getting injured by such a cold-hearted bus system.”
When The Crocodile reached out to the bus driver for comment, they found him frozen solid in the front seat.
