Charter bus overturns on Texas road, injuring 21
This screen capture from television station WFAA in Dallas shows wreckers righting the Mares Bus Lines bus that overturned at San Marcos early Friday.
The Trucker News Services
7/1/2011
SAN MARCOS, Texas — Authorities say a charter bus from carrying passengers from Laredo, Texas, to Dallas rolled onto its side after swerving off a Texas interstate, injuring the driver and the 20 passengers on board.
The bus, operated by Mares Bus Lines of Dallas, left Laredo at 4:15 a.m., according to the San Marco Police Department.
It overturned near the 199 mile marker on Interstate 35, blocking all three northbound lanes, police said.
Police said investigators haven't yet determined why the driver veered briefly off the road before overcorrecting.
The bus had made a scheduled stop only a few miles earlier in New Braunfels, which is about 30 miles north of San Antonio.
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Mares Bus Lines has a good safety record, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website.
It is below the threshold for possible intervention on three of the five BASICs, has an inconclusive in another and no violations in the fifth.
During the 24-month period ending May 20, the company has had 55 drivers inspections with an out-of-service rate of 5.5 percent and 40 vehicle inspections with and out-of-service rate of 15 percent.
The national average for those two types of inspections in 2009-10 was 5.51 percent and 20.72 percent, respectively.
Dallas television station WFAA reported that paramedics flew a number of the victims to a hospital in San Antonio.
Two victims were flown to Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, where doctors had to amputate a 4-year-old victim’s leg above the knee.
The station reported that of the patients sent to San Antonio, three had been discharged, one was in ICU, one was in intermediate care and one was being held overnight for observation.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.
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