Terrance Trent, the driver in Friday's tragic crash at Broad and High streets Downtown, says he was speeding and weaving in traffic on E. Broad Street about 10 a.m. Friday because his girlfriend was beating on him and he was trying to rush to the Downtown police headquarters.

Inside the cab of the pickup truck, a domestic dispute was erupting.

Terrance Trent, the driver, says he was speeding and weaving in traffic on E. Broad Street about 10 a.m. on Friday because he was trying to rush to the Downtown police station. Witnesses said he was driving erratically, speeding down the street with a flat tire.

His passenger and on-and-off girlfriend, Mamie Adams, was inside the truck beating him as he drove, he said. "She was assaulting me with a can of pop while I was driving," he said yesterday from his hospital room. "That's why the accident happened and all the other stuff. I just wanted to get to the police station."

Before he could get there, though, he smashed into the side of a Groveport Madison school bus in the intersection of Broad and High streets, pushing it onto the sidewalk. Two people crossing the street - city engineer Bill Lewis and engineering intern Stephanie Fibelkorn - were struck.

Fibelkorn, 21, an Ohio State University student, died at the scene.

Lewis, 58, was in critical condition yesterday in OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

Three special-needs children on the bus were uninjured; their driver was treated at Grant.

Adams, 51, was in good condition at Grant last night.

Her family says the relationship between Adams and Trent is toxic. Her sons asked their mom to stop seeing him, but she wouldn't.

Trent, 61, is in Mount Carmel West hospital with a blackened eye, broken leg and injured wrist. He sat in a chair in his room on the orthopedics floor yesterday, reading the Bible. He said he's sorry for what happened.

He was hesitant at first to talk about the crash but said, "It would be better if people had the story."

Columbus police say the crash is still under investigation.

The couple have been together for two years, Trent said. "It's been, to say the least, a real struggle."

Adams' son Michael Lyons lives with his mother on the East Side. The 27-year-old son has never liked Trent. The couple argue a lot, but Lyons said he never knew of it escalating to a physical fight.

His mother is doing better and should soon be moved out of intensive care, Lyons said. She doesn't remember anything about the crash, not even getting into the truck, he said.

It's possible that his mother was beating on Trent, Lyons said.

"I can see my mom doing that in self-defense to try to protect herself, if she feels … her life is being threatened by him driving erratically down the road," he said.

Adams' older son, Travis Worthy, said yesterday that he doesn't think his mother would have hit Trent without being provoked.

"I'm thinking he was intentionally doing something, he was trying to kill them both," said Worthy, 33, from his home in Whitehall. Lyons called what Trent did reckless, even if he was trying to get to the police station. He wonders why Trent didn't just pull over and order Adams out of the truck.

"Call the cops right then and say there's a domestic dispute," he said. "Not put other people's lives in danger because you're claiming someone is hitting on you and you want to get to the police precinct. … Be responsible about it."

Trent said he didn't do that because he didn't have his cellphone with him. He said he had called police on Adams once before, and "She tore up my truck. She's very violent."

"She's destroyed my life. I lost my career. I lost my relationship with my family because of her," he said, declining to elaborate.

Trent didn't want to talk more about the crash but had something he wanted to add.

"If you talk to the parents, will you tell them I'm really sorry?" he told a reporter.

"I never intended to hurt anybody. I'm just really sorry."

amanning@dispatch.com

@allymanning