Two people, including a child, were killed and dozens of others injured in a crash on a Texas highway Friday when a cement truck crashed head-on into a school bus carrying more than 40 children in a tour, authorities said.
The accident, which left the bus overturned, happened around 2pm local time on State Highway 21 in Bastrop County, Texas, northeast of Austin, state capital, police and fire officials said.
In addition to a child on the bus being pronounced dead at the scene, the crash killed the driver of a passenger car who was traveling behind the bus and ended up crashing into one of the two larger vehicles when they collided, police said.
A total of 11 adults and 44 children were on board the bus, while the other two vehicles carried just one driver.
Among the survivors, four were taken to hospitals by helicopter in critical condition, and six with serious but less serious injuries were transported by ambulance, said Kevin Parker, division chief of Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
The rest suffered minor injuries, some of which were also treated at area hospitals, he said.
Investigators are trying to determine what caused the cement truck to swerve into the path of the approaching school bus. There was no immediate indication that the driver was suddenly ill, according to Sergeant Deon Cockrell of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Cockrell said the school bus was taking children on a field trip when the accident occurred.
Authorities at the scene did not give the ages of the children. But the Austin-American Statesman newspaper reported that they were pre-kindergarten students from the Hays Consolidated Independent School District who were on their way to a local zoo.
Source: CNN Brasil
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