3 Killed In Arkansas Bus Crash

Three people were killed when a bus crossed the median on Interstate 40 in eastern Arkansas and crashed with a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck, Arkansas State Police said.

State police said the crash occurred at about 10 p.m. Sunday about 35 miles west of Memphis, Tenn., near near Forrest City when the westbound bus veered across the median into the eastbound lanes. The Tornado Bus Co. bus first struck the pickup, then collided with the 18-wheeler, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

State Police said pickup driver Danny Okurily, 40, of Hot Springs, Ark., was killed, as were two bus passengers. Identities of the dead passengers have not been released. Bus driver Felix Tapia, 28, of Brownsville, Texas, and tractor-trailer driver David Rice, 45, of Mars Hill, N.C., suffered minor injuries.

State police haven't said how many others were injured, but Sadler said a Tornado Bus manifest listed 44 passengers and a driver aboard the bus headed from Chicago to Dallas.

Telephone calls to Tornado Bus offices in Dallas found full voice mail accounts.

Shortly after the crash, a state police dispatcher said about a dozen victims needed to be extricated from the bus. Witnesses said children were among the passengers.

Sadler said Tapia was being interviewed by troopers investigating the crash. Other survivors were also being interviewed.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Forrest City, West Memphis and Memphis, Tenn..

Traffic was halted for a time in both directions as emergency crews worked at the scene. Motorists were rerouted onto U.S. Highway 70.

In 2004, a bus crash in east Arkansas claimed 15 lives. In that crash, a Chicago tour bus heading to a Mississippi casino left Interstate 55 near Marion and flipped over. Federal investigators said the bus, which carried 30 people, was in poor condition and shouldn't have been in service.

[jetranger7]

Guess you never been a driver and had to work for some of these companies, that are so mis-managed its pathetic. They don''t care if you''ve had any sleep, they may have kept this up for hours doing something else,and then sent him on this run. who knows. But I can tell you this much, I was looking into driving one of these Buses of this type for tours,back about 7 years ago, and I was "shocked" by the amount of Pay they wanted to pay a Professional Long Haul driver with Experience of 20-years, to drive these tour buses, most of the ones I talked to only wanted to pay like 65 to 80 dollars a day, keeping in mind you have to drive 10 to 11 hours at any given hour day or nite, and rest 8, then go again, their offering of per deim for meals was figured into that above wage too, so divide 65 by 11, and see how much per hour you''d make, so these guys are pushed to the limit to make a living and support themselves, just like the trucking industry is doing to their drivers, long hours and low pay, adds up to Fatige and stress and health problems,Which if you don''t know, is WHY you see so many adds in the paper for TRUCK-DRIVERS for long haul trucking, and if you''ll notice, its the SAME companies all the time doing the advertising, because their TURN OVER is so HIGH in Drivers, they either quit, get killed or fired !

[jetranger7]

Guess you never been a driver and had to work for some of these companies, that are so mis-managed its pathetic. They don''t care if you''ve had any sleep, they may have kept this up for hours doing something else,and then sent him on this run. who knows. But I can tell you this much, I was looking into driving one of these Buses of this type for tours,back about 7 years ago, and I was "shocked" by the amount of Pay they wanted to pay a Professional Long Haul driver with Experience of 20-years, to drive these tour buses, most of the ones I talked to only wanted to pay like 65 to 80 dollars a day, keeping in mind you have to drive 10 to 11 hours at any given hour day or nite, and rest 8, then go again, their offering of per deim for meals was figured into that above wage too, so divide 65 by 11, and see how much per hour you''d make, so these guys are pushed to the limit to make a living and support themselves, just like the trucking industry is doing to their drivers, long hours and low pay, adds up to Fatige and stress and health problems,Which if you don''t know, is WHY you see so many adds in the paper for TRUCK-DRIVERS for long haul trucking, and if you''ll notice, its the SAME companies all the time doing the advertising, because their TURN OVER is so HIGH in Drivers, they either quit, get killed or fired !

[carolrhill]

Sounds like someone fell asleep behind the wheel to me. I can never understand why people just simply do not pull off the side of the road if you feel sleepy it just does not make any sense to me at all.
I was so sorry to hear about this accident because it could have been stopped if the driver had just pulled off the road.
MAY GOD BLESS ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT WERE KILLED OR INJURED IN THIS HORRIBLE ACCIDENT NOW AND FOREVER AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!