At Least 10 Killed After Prison Bus Crashes off Texas Highway
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iStock/Thinkstock(ODESSA, Texas) — At least 10 people are dead after a prison bus careened off an icy highway overpass in Texas, slid down an embankment and collided with a train on Wednesday, the Texas Department of Corrections announced.
Two corrections officers and eight inmates died in the crash, the Corrections Department said in a statement. The five other people on the bus — four inmates and one corrections officer — have been transported to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.
The bus was traveling from a unit in Abilene to El Paso at around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday when the accident occurred, Corrections Department Executive Director Brad Livingston said in the statement.
There was another accident at the top of the overpass that the bus tried to avoid, and in doing so, the bus may have hit black ice, Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson told ABC News.
After the collision, the bus was dragged for about 200 yards along the tracks before coming to a complete stop, causing a number of smaller accidents happened after the first collision.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of those killed and injured this morning in a tragic accident,” Livingston said. “Their loved ones will be in our thoughts and prayers.”
The investigation into the accident is ongoing and the National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to Odessa, Livingston said.
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