Ten people killed after Texas prison bus drives off interstate, hits passing train outside Odessa
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus was taking prisoners from Abilene to El Paso when it crashed around 7:30 a.m. Central Time off the side of Interstate 20 and struck an eastbound Union Pacific train, leaving two prison officers and eight inmates dead, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement.
One staff member and four offenders were injured and hospitalized.
The bus was coming from the Middleton Unit in Abiliene, which houses male inmates, and headed to the Sanchez Unit in El Paso.
"It's with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of those killed and injured this morning in a tragic accident," criminal justice department executive director Brad Livingston said in a statement. "Their loved ones will be in our thoughts and prayers."
The train, carrying cargo containers, left Los Angeles on Tuesday and was en route to Marion, Arkansas, outside Memphis, Tenn., a Union Pacific spokesman told the Daily News.
Two people, a conductor and an engineer, were on board the freight train, Jeff DeGraff told the News.
“Our train crew is not injured,” he said.
Photos of the scene show foggy conditions. The National Weather Service reported a temperature of 31 degrees and a chance of freezing drizzle just before 10:30 a.m. local time.
Ector County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Gary Duesler says the crash was some 10 to 12 miles west of Odessa in Penwell, Texas. The weather department reported three miles of visibility in foggy conditions at the time of the wreck, he said.
Both directions of the highway have been shut down and will be for hours, he said. Diverted traffic has ended up in separate crashes, Duesler told the News.
Multiple vehicles were reported in the wreck. One witness told KOSA-TV the scene was "brutal."
The emergency room at the Odessa Medical Center Hospital is in lockdown as five patients are treated.