Deadly bus crash in Arkansas

A charter bus rolled off an interstate off-ramp, killing one child and injuring at least 45, authorities say.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A third-grader was killed and at least 45 people were injured when a charter bus carrying youth football players from Tennessee rolled off an interstate and overturned before sunrise Monday in central Arkansas, authorities said.

Arkansas State Police said the bus crashed along Interstate 30 near Benton, about 25 miles southwest of Little Rock. Police said most of the injured were children and were taken to hospitals in Little Rock and Benton.

The elementary-schoolage children from the Orange Mound Youth Association in southeast Memphis were returning home after playing in a tournament in the Dallas area over the weekend, according to Memphis TV station WMC. Orange Mound is a historically black neighborhood that unites around its highly competitive youth football program.

One of half a dozen adults on the bus, Damous Hailey, said the players from 10 Orange Mound Youth Association football teams had been playing in all-star squads. He told The Commercial Appeal newspaper that the bus swerved then flipped before landing on its side at the foot of an embankment.

“When the bus started flipping, the kids were hollering, and we were trying to calm them down,” he said in an interview from Saline Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for injuries to his right side and leg. “I was holding on, trying to make sure I didn’t get thrown out.”

Teams and coaches affiliated with the Orange Mound Youth Association have not returned phone calls and emails seeking comment.

At a news conference in Memphis on Monday afternoon, Nickalous Manning, area superintendent of Aspire Public Schools, said a third-grader from an Aspire charter school died in the crash.