Church-chartered bus crashes into concrete pillar; five dead

TERRELL, Texas -- A chartered bus taking youngsters to a church camp crashed into the concrete pillar of an overpass Monday, killing the driver and four passengers, authorities said.

At least 36 other people were injured in the accident about 30 miles east of Dallas. The bus was carrying more than 40 people and had departed from the Dallas suburb of Garland.

The bus became wedged between the pillar and a grass embankment, its left side nearly sheared off. The scattered debris included a shoe and a tattered black Bible, along with a pile of bus seats and twisted pieces of metal.

Three teen-agers were hospitalized in critical condition and two were in serious condition. Most of the others suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, hospital officials said.

Family members gathered under the bridge on the other side of the interstate, hugging and crying as emergency officials worked to clear the mangled wreckage.

Passengers said the eastbound bus on Interstate 20 swerved just before it veered into the pillar. The cause of the crash wasn't immediately determined, said state Department of Public Safety Cpl. Joe Applewhite. The wrecked bus was loaded onto a trailer and taken to a site where it will be inspected.

The bus was one of two taking middle and high school students and some adult chaperones to a church camp in Ruston, La.

"I was able to pull some of the children out from the chairs that were all mangled up and tore up," said Ruben Vasquez, a passer-by who was among the first on the scene. "These kids were screaming and hollering for their moms and dads."

Todd Von Helms, a youth minister with First Baptist Church of Cedar Hill, was traveling with another group headed to the same camp when they came upon the accident scene.

"There were bodies and blood and things everywhere," Von Helms said. "I asked our youths to turn their heads and not to look."

The bus driver was identified as 51-year-old Ernest Carter of Dallas. Most of the victims were members of Metro Church of Garland. At least one, 14-year-old Michelle Chaney, attended Arapaho Baptist Church. She was among the dead.

"She was the only daughter I had," said her father, Benny Chaney.