Bus Explodes on Dallas Highway; Up to 20 Dead
Friday, September 23, 2005
DALLAS — A bus filled with Hurricane Rita (search) evacuees caught fire early Friday on gridlocked Interstate 45, killing possibly up to 20 people.
KFAA-TV reported that 20 people had been killed and 12 injured, but that could not be confirmed.
KDFW-TV reported that more that one person was killed, and that some people may have been trapped aboard the bus.
"There were 45 souls on the bus ... at this point we believe we have about half accounted for," Dallas County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Don Peritz said.
"We believe it's going to be closer to 20 fatalities," Peritz later added.
"The early indications are this is a mechanical issue. The driver did survive the accident," Peritz said. "It's my understanding he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate people."
A Dallas County Sheriff's Department official told FOX News that the bus had been carrying elderly evacuees from coastal areas expected to be hit by the giant hurricane.
He said sparks from the bus's brakes may have ignited oxygen tanks being carried onboard by elderly passengers with respiratory problems.
Television news footage showed flames leaping from the burning bus on a darkened highway as stalled traffic stayed a safe distance away.
Later, the blackened shell of the bus was visible, after the flames were put out and daylight came.
The explosion took place on the Malloy Bridge (search) near the town of Wilmer, southeast of Dallas and traffic was backed up for miles in both directions as the entire freeway was blocked off.
I-45 is the main highway connecting Dallas to Houston and Galveston (search), and the explosion and fire were only complicating massive traffic jams in eastern Texas as millions of people evacuated ahead of Rita.
FOX News' Carol McKinley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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