Schneider had shattered two ribs. Lars had broken a toe. Kirk's eye was
blackened. Kirk, who'd blacked out after being thrown from his bunk, snapped
to consciousness and made his way through a side emergency hatch. Outside,
his eyes widened at the sight of Cliff, his body limp and lifeless, pinned
under the bus. Cliff Burton, master bass playing, composer, rager, and
bandmate, was dead. "Cliff was on the top level of the right rear bunk, and
I think that as the bus was bouncing around, he was sort of pushed through
the window," speculates John. "Then when the vehicle fell over on its right
side, he was halfway out the window and it fell on him." Meanwhile, the
bunks had toppled like matchsticks, teetering into one another and
collapsing into what resembled a pile of kindling. Mullen and Larsen, who'd
also slept in right-side bunks, were pinned under the rubble for nearly
three hours before the fire department jacked up the debris and rescued
them. "When the bus first stopped on its side," continues John, "I remember
hearing this noise that sounded like water. I was afraid we'd landed in a
creek and were halfway underwater. But the noise was only that of the motor
still running."
Within minutes, John and the band had pulled themselves from the bus and
were huddling outside. "We were all sitting out there in 35 degree weather,
with me in my socks and underwear before someone gave me a blanket. I
remember Kirk and James yelling at the driver. By then, everyone had begun
to realize that something was wrong with Cliff. I remember James walking up
the road a bit to see if there was ice on the road, because the driver had
claimed he'd slid over a sheet of ice. Kirk was crying. "When asked what he
remembers of the rest of that nightmarish evening, James poignantly
responds, "I just recall our tour manager Bobby saying, 'Okay, let's get the
band together and take them back to the hotel.' The only thing I could
think was, 'The band? No way! There ain't no band. The band is not "the
band" right now. It's just three guys." John who was routed to the emergency
room of a nearby hospital, remembers coming to the realization that
something was very wrong. "I remember Bobby lyin' next to me, as they were
taking our blood pressure and stuff, and saying, 'Cliff's gone you know.'
All of a sudden, the reality of everything hit me. Right then, I looked
above, at the ceiling, and thanked whoever was up there that nobody else had
been seriously hurt, and that it hadn't turned out even worse than it was."
By afternoon, band and crew had checked into a hotel. The dazed
group dealt with their anxiety in the manner they were most accustomed to :
drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage. John
remembers that he and Kirk were so shaken up that they slept with the lights
on in their room that night. Two days later, Metallica, minus one, returned
to America.
This map shows where the bus skidded off the road