Big rig strikes school bus, killing two and injuring 22
MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas—Two drivers were killed and more than a dozen students injured when a tractor-trailer veered into oncoming traffic and struck a passenger car and a bus carrying a Texas high school track team, law enforcement said Friday.
Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Lonny Haschel said the collision late Thursday occurred near the town of Talco, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas, as the Mount Pleasant High School athletes were returning from a meet.
The boys’ team bus toppled over in the initial collision then the big rig struck the car driven by an assistant coach for the
girls’ team. The girls’ team bus was trailing behind and wasn’t involved in the collision.
Superintendent Judd Marshall told KLTV in Tyler that 32 students were on the bus and 19 were taken to hospitals.
“It’s going to take some time to put all of this together because there are so many moving pieces and so many people to talk to,” Haschel said.
He identified the two killed in the wreck as 50-year-old truck driver Bradley Farmer of Bogard, Mo., and Angelica Beard, 30, of Mount Pleasant. Beard was a volunteer girls’ track coach at MPHS and a PE teacher at Frances Corprew Elementary.
As part of the investigation, authorities are checking video from a camera on the bus.
Three coaches also were injured, including Van Bowen who was driving the bus. He remains in critical condition at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
Classes in Mount Pleasant were held as normal Friday, but counselors were on hand to assist students or staffers, Marshall told KLTV.