Irving Bus Crash Victims Still Recovering
IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - Details are still being released about the travel bus that crashed in Irving on Thursday morning. Two passengers died in the crash and 42 more were injured. The Cardinal Coach Line bus was bound for an Oklahoma casino when the driver somehow lost control, with the bus ultimately toppling onto its side along State Highway 161, near Belt Line Road.
At least a dozen witnesses stopped to help the passengers before emergency crews arrived on the scene. Some victims said that a tire on the bus blew out, but officials have yet to confirm that information. Video from the crash shows passengers being pulled from open hatches on the bus, and some of them needing to be carried away.
Kenneth High is one of those people who stopped to help the victims. He said that everybody was working as fast as they could to get the passengers to somewhere safe. "I saw people just on top of each other," said High. "Just a mess of people inside that. It still didn't catch on it was a tour bus."
Sadly, two women died in the crash. One of them was the organizer of the bus trip, 81-year-old Sue Taylor of Hurst, who was affectionately known to other travelers as Casino Sue. Friends described her as a firecracker. Over the past 10 years, Taylor had frequently organized trips for seniors, where a charter bus would take the group to a casino in Oklahoma.
The other victim was 69-year-old Paula Hahn of Fort Worth.
Bus driver Lloyd Earl Rieve was among those injured in the fatal crash. He has 20 years of experience. According to his family, Rieve had surgery on Thursday at Parkland Hospital in Dallas after the impact from the crash threw him through the vehicle's front windshield. The family learned about the crash when they saw it on the news. "He's a very loving, kind person," said Rieve's granddaughter on Thursday. "Everybody leaned on him. He's the rock of our family."
A total of 15 victims were treated at Parkland Hospital, and two of them have already been released. The other injured passengers were transported to other nearby hospitals. Stick with CBSDFW.COM throughout the day for the latest updates on their conditions, and more details on the crash.
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