Crash of illegal charter bus in Texas kills 15
The vehicle, carrying a Vietnamese American Catholic group on a pilgrimage to a religious festival, blew a tire, skidded off a highway and overturned.
SHERMAN, TEXAS — An unlicensed charter bus carrying a Vietnamese American Catholic group on a pilgrimage to a religious festival blew a tire and skidded off a highway early Friday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
The bus, en route from Houston to Missouri with 55 people aboard, smashed into a guardrail and tipped over along the edge of the road north of Dallas about 12:45 a.m. One side of the vehicle was crushed. Luggage, clothes, a sandal and a blood-soaked pillow were scattered across the grass and pavement.
Ten people were taken to the hospital by helicopter, and some were in critical condition late Friday.
Passenger Leha Nguyen, 45, said passengers were dozing off when she heard a noise and screaming, and she opened her eyes.
"Somebody was laying on my legs. A lady next to me, she had her arm crushed up. The lady who was on my left, a man was on top of her," Nguyen said at a hospital. She said nobody had been wearing seat belts, and people were strewn all over. A television had fallen on one person.
"I think I'm the luckiest one out of most people," she said.
Most of the passengers were from the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and two other mostly Vietnamese congregations in Houston. They were on their way to Carthage, Mo., for an annual open-air festival honoring the Virgin Mary.
The Marian Days pilgrimage, begun in the late 1970s, attracts thousands of Catholics of Vietnamese descent and includes a large outdoor Mass each day, entertainment and camping at night.
"Please pray for us," said Holly Nguyen, a 38-year-old church member who was following the bus in a car but did not see the wreck. She anxiously awaited word of her father, who was on the bus when it ran off the road about 65 miles north of Dallas, close to the Oklahoma line.
The right front tire, which blew out, had been retreaded in violation of safety standards, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. The tread had separated from the tire itself in a process called delamination.
"If there is a loss of pressure or the tire becomes delaminated, it's much more difficult to control the vehicle," she said.
It is legal to retread such tires but not on the axle that steers the bus, Hersman said. The driver was a 52-year-old who had a commercial license but whose medical certification had expired, she said.
