At least 10 people were killed today when a bus carrying state prisoners skidded off an icy highway overpass in Texas, slid down an embankment and collided with a passing train, a county sheriff said.
The overpass on an interstate highway was slick with ice today morning when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus left the roadway just west of Odessa, according to Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement that eight prisoners and two corrections officers were killed.
Donaldson said five injured people were taken to a hospital. A spokeswoman for Medical Center Hospital in Odessa did not have information on the severity of those injuries. Justice department spokesman Jason Clark said the bus was carrying 12 prisoners and three corrections officers to the Sanchez prison in El Paso.
The white bus came to rest on its side, crumpled with heavy damage to its top and undercarriage.
