8 dead, about 40 hurt, in South Texas bus crash

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A charter bus headed to a casino crashed today in far South Texas, killing eight people and injuring about 40 in a one-vehicle rollover, officials said.

Webb County spokesman Larry Sanchez said seven people died at the scene on U.S. Highway 83 north of Laredo, the Laredo Morning Times reported. An eighth person died later at a hospital.

Chief Ricardo Rangel of the Webb County Volunteer Fire Department said the bus, identified as belonging to OGA Charters, originated in the Rio Grande Valley and was headed to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo. The bus company is based in San Juan in Hidalgo County. There was no answer at the bus company, and no one immediately responded to a message left there.

The fire department described it as a rollover involving just one vehicle. Firefighters received the call late Saturday morning. By late afternoon, the highway at the scene remained closed.

The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years, including one in January 2015 when two prison guards and eight inmates were killed after their prison bus struck a piece of displaced highway guardrail west of Odessa. The bus fell about 20 feet before striking a Union Pacific freight train that happened to be passing beneath the highway.