christopherecclestones: At least 2 killed, as many as 30 hurt in bus crash outside Dallas

Friday, 12 April 2013

At least 2 killed, as many as 30 hurt in bus crash outside Dallas

At least two people were killed and dozens injured after a charter bus overturned on a Texas highway outside of Dallas. MSNBC's Thomas Roberts has more.

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

At least two people were killed and 36 injured Thursday when a bus carrying people to a casino overturned on a highway outside Dallas, authorities said.

The crash happened in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Video from NBC affiliate KXAS showed crews working to free trapped passengers and carrying people away on stretchers.

?People were screaming, on top of each other,? Dan Risik, who identified himself as a passenger on the bus, told KXAS. ?I was on top of a friend of mine, and a woman was on top of me on my leg. I couldn?t move up, or what have you, until help arrived and they climbed through the windows.?

Risik said the bus was headed to Choctaw Casino Resort, just over the Oklahoma state line and about 90 miles from Dallas. Many of the passengers were elderly, Risik said.

Lm Otero / AP

Emergency responders works the scene of bush crash on the George Bush Turnpike on April 11, in Irving, Texas.

Lonny Haschel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed the two deaths to KXAS. Rusty Wilson, the assistant fire chief of Irving, said 36 were injured. About an hour after the crash, Haschel said it was not clear whether passengers were still trapped inside.

The bus veered out of the northbound lanes of a state highway, struck a rubber roadside barrier, skidded back across the highway, hit a concrete barrier on the other side and overturned, Haschel said. The bus carved deep skid marks into the grass in the median and came to rest on its passenger side.

Ed Cluck said he helped pull a number of people from the bus before rescuers arrived.

?It was pretty bad, people screaming. There was obviously a lot of pain,? Cluck said. ?You could see the people that were obviously in very bad pain and shape and you just couldn?t get to them because there were other people on top of them.?

The National Transit Safety Board dispatched regional investigators to the scene of the accident.

Parkland Hospital in Dallas said it was treating 11 people from the crash and was ?prepared to care for a mass casualty event.? Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving said it was treating six passengers.

Authorities closed the highway and a nearby toll booth and set up a command center in the parking lot of a nearby bank. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.

KXAS reported that Irving fire officials ordered all their trucks to help.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.