Gloria Estefan Not Paralyzed After Crash

Pop music star Gloria Estefan escaped paralysis in a bus crash and could be back on stage dancing and singing with the Miami Sound Machine in three to six months, hospital officials said today.

Spokeswoman Sharyn Wozniak at Scranton Community Medical Center said doctors recommended surgery to treat a partly dislocated bone in Estefan’s back but said the 32-year-old singer-songwriter was expected to recover.

“At this point we look forward to her getting everything back and doing everything well,” said trauma surgeon Dr. William Pfeifer, who treated Estefan.

The Cuban-born lead singer of the Miami Sound Machine was alert and in stable condition. She has some numbness in her limbs but no paralysis, the spokeswoman said.

Wozniak said Estefan had spoken twice to President Bush since the mishap. Estefan and her husband, Emilio, met with Bush on Monday in Washington to discuss their anti-drug work.

Estefan left Cuba in 1962 and helped found the Grammy-nominated band that has moved to the top of the U.S. and European charts with a distinctive style that mixes rock music with the Latin beat of the American barrios.

Estefan was hurt when her private tour bus was struck in the rear by a tractor-trailer on a snowbound highway near Tobyhanna in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.

The bus was hit while stopped behind a jack-knifed truck during a snowstorm. The tractor-trailer driver, Heraldo Samuels of Scarborough, Ontario, was charged with driving at an unsafe speed.

Emilio Estefan, 37, the singer’s manager-husband, and their 9-year-old son, Nayid, were treated for minor injuries. Two other passengers in the Estefan bus, the bus driver and Samuels were also injured.