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The accident, which left the school bus on its side, unfolded
around 2 p.m. on State Highway 21 in Bastrop County, Texas,
northeast of Austin, the state capital, police and fire
officials said.
In addition to one child on the bus pronounced dead at the
scene, the wreck killed the male driver of a passenger car that
was traveling behind the bus and ended up crashing into one of
the two larger vehicles when they collided, police said.
A total of 11 adults and 44 children were aboard the bus, while
the two other vehicles each carried only a driver.
Among the survivors, four were flown to hospitals by helicopter
in critical condition, and six with serious but less dire
injuries were transported by ambulance, said Kevin Parker, a
division chief for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical
Services.
The remainder sustained minor injuries, some of which were also
treated at area hospitals, he said.
Investigators were seeking to determine what led the cement
truck to swerve into the path of the oncoming school bus. There
was no immediate indication the driver was impaired, according
to Sergeant Deon Cockrell of the Texas Department of Public
Safety.
Cockrell said the school bus was taking the children on a field
trip when the crash occurred.
Authorities at the scene did not give the children's ages. But
the Austin-American Statesman newspaper reported the youngsters
were pre-kindergarten students from the Hays Consolidated
Independent School District who were on their way to a local
zoo.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
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