FYI - Attached,
Please find Senator McCains condolence letter to the Vietnamese American
Catholic community for the tragic loss of 13 people in a bus accident this
morning in Sherman, Texas. They were on their way to the Marian Days
pilgrimage in Missouri.
News
sources:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsj8NREvyAiE5hd3VxVS_3Br4wUgD92E6OEG1
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5932466.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/09crash.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
Texas Bus Crash Kills at Least 13 Vietnamese Catholics on Way to Church
Event
Friday, August 08, 2008
SHERMAN, Texas A private charter bus careened off an
overpass north of Dallas early Friday morning, killing at least 13 Vietnamese
Catholics on their way to a church event.
The Dallas Morning News reported that at least 30 were injured in the 12:45
a.m. crash.
Police said they couldn't say exactly how many were hurt in the accident,
which happened on U.S. Highway 75 northbound in Sherman, about 64 miles north of
Dallas. Fifty-five people were on the bus.
The driver survived and was awake in stable condition and talking with
investigators, Sherman Police Lt. Steve Ayers told reporters
Friday.
He didn't release the driver's name and said police do not believe he fell
asleep at the wheel.
"It would be premature to say exactly what may have happened," Ayers said.
"We will treat it as a crime scene."
A blown-out tire on the bus, operated by Angel Tours, contributed to the
wreck, Ayers said.
Ayers said those on the bus were Vietnamese Catholics on their way to a
church event in Missouri. The group left from Houston.
Twelve were confirmed dead at the scene, and one died later
at the hospital, Sherman Lt. Robert Fair told reporters.
Many of the injured were being rushed by helicopters and ambulances to North
Texas hospitals, including Dallas, Allen, Sherman, Denison and Durant,
Okla.
Weve got ambulances and helicopters from all over the county, Fair told
the Morning News.
A spokeswoman at Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman said it was
treating 17 patients.
Two males and two females taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas were
reported to be in critical condition. Methodist and Baylor in Dallas also had
two patients each transported to their hospitals, the Morning News
reported.
A spokeswoman for a Sherman hospital where many of the injured were being
treated told local media the passengers were from a Houston-area church on their
way to a mission trip in Missouri. A Houston Vietnamese Martyr Church chartered
the bus, but the bus was carrying people from various churches, the source
said.
The Herald Democrat reported many of the victims were Vietnamese, and at
least four translators were brought to the scene.
The northbound lanes of the interstate were shut down and traffic was being
diverted, Fair said.
The accident happened less than a mile from the spot where a trucker crossed
the median and killed 10 people five years ago.
