1 Dead After Bus Carrying Youth Football Team From Texas To Tennessee Crashes
SALINE COUNTY, Arkansas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - One child is dead and more than 40 others -- mostly kids -- injured after a bus crash on Interstate-30 in Arkansas.
Arkansas State Police say the charter bus was carrying coaches, staff and players of a youth football team that played in a championship game in North Texas over the weekend and were headed home.
The crash happened around 2:40 a.m. on I-30, just west of Benton, Arkansas. The injured were taken to hospitals in both Benton and Little Rock.
No information was immediately released about the severity of the injuries. Live video from the scene shows the heavily damaged bus on its side in an embankment near an exit that has a sharp curve leaving the interstate. Police said the bus driver was being questioned by troopers.
Troopers say the bus was traveling from North Texas to Memphis, Tennessee when it left the roadway, went down an embankment and overturned several times.
The children, on the team from the Orange Mound Youth Association, reportedly range in age from 9 to 12 years old.
Orange Mound is a historically black neighborhood in southeast Memphis that comes together around its youth football teams, where kids train to be part of the highly competitive Melrose High School squad.
The community was created after the Civil War by and for African-Americans, and black-owned businesses flourished there until desegregation enabled residents to live elsewhere. Chronic disinvestment brought widespread crime and poverty.
At this point, the cause of the crash remains unknown.
* This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.