SHERMAN, Texas, Aug. 8, 2008
14 Killed In Texas Bus Crash
Investigators Say The Bus Was Not In Compliance With Safety Standards
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Deadly Texas Bus Crash
At least 13 people were killed and 30 others injured in a bus crash this morning just north of Dallas.
-
-
Photo
A Sherman, Texas, emergency official stands in front of a bus that crashed while North bound on U.S. 75 early on Aug. 8, 2008, in Sherman, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
-
Photo
Fire trucks and police cars line up at the site of a fatal bus wreck on U.S. Highway 75 in Sherman, Texas early on Aug. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Jennings)
-
-
Photo Essay
Texas Bus Crash
Charter carrying Vietnamese worshipers on pilgrimage runs off highway overpass, killing 14.
The bus skidded across a guard rail before sliding off U.S. 75 on the other side of a bridge over a creek. The right front tire of the bus carrying 55 people from Houston to Missouri blew out.
Investigators say the blown tire had been refitted with a new tread in violation of safety standards.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said late Friday that the driver was a 52-year-old who had a commercial license but whose medical certification had expired.
Authorities say the bus was operating illegally earlier in the day when the right front tire blew. The vehicle smashed into a guardrail and tipped over.
"There were people deceased from the front of the bus to the back of the bus," Officer Zachary Flores, one of the first on the scene, told The Dallas Morning News.
Workers were cleaning debris and gathering personal effects, including a blood-soaked pillow, a lone sandal, luggage and scattered pieces of clothing. There were blood spots on grass near where authorities had lined up six white body bags shortly after the accident.
The bus came to rest on its right side, partly on the northbound lane of the freeway and partly on grass. Workers righted the wreckage and loaded it onto a flatbed truck.
"Please pray for us," said Holly Nguyen, 38, a church member who was following behind the bus in a car but didn't see the wreck. She was anxiously waiting for word on whether her father, who was on the bus, was dead or injured.
Fire Chief Jeff Jones said 12 people died on the scene. Another two have died in hospitals. At least six more were hospitalized in critical condition.
"I saw crushing wounds," Jones said, "but there were very few walking wounded."
(AP/ESRI)
Investigators have interviewed the bus driver and he is in stable condition, Ayers said. Roads were dry at the time of the tragedy.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene. Their investigation could take up to 18 months.
The accident happened less than a mile from the spot where a trucker crossed the median and killed 10 people five years ago.
The injured were rushed by road and air to several hospitals. Northbound traffic on the highway was shut down as ambulances and helicopters used the roadway and median to ferry the injured to hospitals.
Many of those on the bus were from the Vietnamese Martyrs Church of Houston and were on their way to a religious festival in Carthage, Mo.
Mary Nguyen, a member of the church for over 10 years, was at the church because she wanted to be near other parishioners after learning early Friday that a close friend had died.
Nguyen said she actually had planned to meet her friend, who canceled because of the trip. She began sobbing as she described the dream that kept waking her up, in which she was on a trip with the friend then opened a suitcase and saw dead bodies.
"I feel so sorry because she's dead ... she was just a very good person," she said. "The church is like one big family here. We're very close. We stick together."
Tinh Trinh, a church member for 20 years, said he was waiting to hear how one of his wife's friends was doing.
"I myself cried this morning when I heard the news," said Trinh, one of only a few people at the large brick church early Friday.
The Marian Days pilgrimage, which started in the late 1970s in southwest Missouri, attracts thousands of Catholic Vietnamese Americans each year. Many attend a large outdoor mass each day while enjoying entertainment and camping throughout the city at night.
The accident was the worst bus wreck in Texas since 23 people died when a bus carrying nursing home residents fleeing from Hurricane Rita was rocked by several explosions after catching fire on a gridlocked highway near Dallas.
Sherman is about 65 miles north of Dallas.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 54 CommentsConsumer advocates are trying very hard to get the information out about expiration dates on tires.
Expired tires are extremely dangerous in that the material they are made of decinergrates. New tires, already past their expiration date, are being sold all over America. Too few consumers realize that tires have expiration dates and find out only when they have a blow-out while driving.
If the manufacterers didn''t hide the expiration date on the inside of the tire or hide the information about tires even having an expiration date, less highway deaths would occur in this country.
One man lost his son to a car wreck letting him use the family van for a graduation trip, a van with new tires...tires that had expired.
I also wonder about those tires. My understanding is that they should be used after they are 6 years old.
----------------------- Posted by usclimey
Maybe all that singin distracts the bus driver?
Posted by DaVicar2 at 10:16 AM : Aug 08, 2008
I think that these private groups have these bus''s and do not check the thing for safety. I wounder if you are supposed to rotate the tires on a big vehicle?? Does anyone know the answer to that?
You are human filth. Get a job. Get a life. Get see a psychologist.
I live in Dallas, and all the news is talking about is this bus crash. It reminds me so much of the Metro-church bus crash about five years ago.
My condolences to the families, and may God bless the survivors that are fighting for their lives, and the doctors who are doing their best for these people.
You are human filth. Get a job. Get a life. Get see a psychologist.
I live in Dallas, and all the news is talking about is this bus crash. It reminds me so much of the Metro-church bus crash about five years ago.
My condolences to the families, and may God bless the survivors that are fighting for their lives, and the doctors who are doing their best for these people.
Posted by indivthinker at 11:01 AM : Aug 08, 2008
I SAY AMEN TO WHAT YOU SAID ABOVE..
Posted by usclimey at 10:01 AM : Aug 08, 2008
Because groups of atheists rarely get together for road trips?
Posted by ccfsdca at 11:53 AM : Aug 08, 2008
------------------------------------------------------
You know nothing about Texas and even less about Arizona. But you do seem to know a lot about being a bigot!
Don''t be a freakin'' idiot. If you think it was God''s will to kill so many innocent people who worshiped him, then people like you are more delusional than the bi-polars. Please!
So they get A FREE PASS! They''re just struggling immigrants trying to live the American dream.
Of running an illegal business and killing and maiming people. Oh, like white people never do that.
The passengers were from the Vietnamese Martyr Catholic Church. They WANTED to die anyway. Normally they would have to pay extra for that.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5932102.html
--------------
Oh, gosh! It was WITHIN A MILE of A DANGEROUS SPOT IN THE ROAD. Maybe.
Somebody should sue. From a mile away.
Posted by xxunknown
I was wondering the same thing...must be away from the comp today. Woo-Hoo!
My heart goes out to those that were killed and injured and their families. Condolences and well wishes.
I am responding to news on dead TexASSans in the same way as TeXASSans have responded to news on dead Iraqis. If you don''t like what I said maybe you should be more mindful about the comments you post about the people dying in other countries - remember that bit in your buybull about "doing unto others as you would have others do unto you" ?? - oh yeah I forget you just lecture others on following the buybull while you do the exact opposite - tyoical for sanctimonious buybull thumping Christians
Posted by causeway_m at 03:01 PM : Aug 08, 2008
Why don''t you come to Texas and dicuss these ideas with the biggest redneck you can find?
I''m sure he''d find your opinions worthy of a meaningful exchange of views.
Posted by causeway_m at 03:01 PM : Aug 08, 2008
-----------------------------------------------------
You just proved my point causeway_m. First, you are a bigot which to me is no different then being a racist. Second, when someone says "I don''t have to know...", that usually means they don''t know Jack and to add proof they usually follow that up with vulgarity. I''m from Arizona and I''m proud to have such a fine state as Texas as my neighbor. I would trust a Texan to watch my back way more then I would ever trust the likes of you, you bigot.
Why is GOD always blamed for things like this, If you believe in GOD, you must believe in the Devil also. He can kill as well as GOD can but nobody ever blames him. Why does blame have to be placed anyway? Because very few people ever accept the blame themselves. It is Human nature to lie about things.
http://www.chron.com/disp/sto
ry.mpl/hotstories/5932102.html
I am responding to news on dead TexASSans in the same way as TeXASSans have responded to news on dead Iraqis. If you don''t like what I said maybe you should be more mindful about the comments you post about the people dying in other countries - remember that bit in your buybull about "doing unto others as you would have others do unto you" ?? - oh yeah I forget you just lecture others on following the buybull while you do the exact opposite - tyoical for sanctimonious buybull thumping Christians." Posted by causeway_m at 02:59 PM : Aug 08, 2008
Evidently SOMEone found your original post and the one time-stamped 03:01 PM : Aug 08, 2008 offensive enough to have them both deleted. Congratulations. Even that one trick pony, "terrorislam" hasn''t managed to get two posts scrubbed in the same thread.
I didn''t get a chance to read either before they got axed so I can''t say whether I would be offended, but with a population of nearly 20 million, it''s hard for me to believe that all "TexASSans" are the Neanderthals you apparently portray them to be.
I will not betray my religious convictions but I read the "buybull" occassionally and in it there is a passage about turning the other cheek. To my mind this merely means that stupidity, hostility, or rudeness on one person''s part is no excuse for the same on anyone else''s.
Posted by LloydBest1 at 05:20 PM : Aug 08, 2008
The poster you addressed is a known troll. I have invited him (it?) to discuss these opinions with a big redneck in Texas to have a meaningful exchange of views.
Until I see evidence that such an exchange has occurred, I would consider this troll to be worthy of being ignored.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5932102.html
Still think there''s NO HARM from illegal businesses?
cletus - why don''y you get your fat *** and even fatter yellow belly over to Iraq or Afghanistan and discuss your views on Islam with the AQ or Taliban fellas ??? I''ve noticed your comments and those of your texASSan trailer trash brethren on those fellas but strangely the yellow bellied texASSan redneck trash seem to busy wobbling and scratching their fat yellow bellies to get over to those places
Posted by NAVYVET77 at 03:48 PM : Aug 08, 2008"
*** - I''ve seen your comments about Muslims, blacks Iraqis etc (in fact anyone who soesn''t worship your beloved baboon leader and his chosen successor - the old, grey haired, wrinkly rune McCain) so your coomments about me being bigoted are HILARIOUS......sort of typical of the sanctimonious drivel I have come to expect from you ******* buybull thumping trailer trash
Arizona - that''s a stste full of them Moromon paedophiles isn''t it.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by txgrouch2006 at 05:25 PM : Aug 08, 2008"
cletus -still to busy wobbling and scratching your fat yellow belly to go over to Iraq and Afghanistan and fight for your beloved murrkkka I see - sort of expected from TexASSans really seeing as TexASS is famously known as the yellow belly state
I will not betray my religious convictions but I read the "buybull" occassionally and in it there is a passage about turning the other cheek. To my mind this merely means that stupidity, hostility, or rudeness on one person''''s part is no excuse for the same on anyone else''''s.
Posted by LloydBest1 at 05:20 PM : Aug 08, 2008"
As I recall the "buybull" also has this passage about doing unto others what you would have others do unto you........seeing as you buybull thumpers esp. those from texASS found the killings of Iraqis and Afghans to be funny and hilarious, I am shocked shocked I say, that you renown believers in Christianity would be upset at my comments about the TexASSans.
Oh and as for you finding it difficult to believe that all 20m TexASSans are neanderthals.......well let''s just say that you Assmericvnt buybull thumpers referred to all Muslims, Arabs, euriopeans, chinese (indeed anyone) who refused to worship your beloved lord god pretzeldunce baboon as a terrorist.....so why would you be surprised that someone else may find TexASSans to be *** given their *** comments and behaviour
Maybe if those TexASSans don''t like being generalised about they shouldn''t generalise about others - you know follow the words of that buybull *** that they try to ram down everyones throat
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5932102.html
Still think there''''s NO HARM from illegal businesses?
Guess what they say about TexASSans is true - the only thing bigger than a TexASSan''s talk is his fat yellow belly and the deep yellow streaks down his TexASSan back
It is a shame that such a tragedy brings persons to this story that have ulterior motives and begin needless arguments for their own enjoyment
Guess what they say about TexASSans is true - the only thing bigger than a TexASSan''''s talk is his fat yellow belly and the deep yellow streaks down his TexASSan back.
Posted by causeway_m at 07:18 PM : Aug 08, 2008"
causeway_m MUST be a Democrat. This person just exudes charm and compassion, and is obviously concerned with inclusion, and has not a discriminatory bone in their body.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 54 Comments