According to the NTSB’s preliminary report the bus left the Middleton Correctional Facility at 4:40 a.m., occupied by 12 offenders and three prison guards, for the 250-mile trip to the Sanchez State Jail in El Paso and at 7:50 a.m., skidded off Interstate-20, broke through a guardrail and struck a Union Pacific freight train.
Texas Department of Public Safety investigators believe icy road conditions may have caused the bus to lose control and leave the highway according to a report by Digital Journal. There was also some speculation that the guardrail had been damaged in a previous accident.
In its report the NTSB confirmed that the guardrail had been damaged saying, “On the previous day, the 225-foot-long metal beam guardrail leading up to the overpass was damaged in a vehicle collision. The Texas Department of Transportation responded, photographed the damage and placed traffic cones in the area.”
The bus was following a tractor-trailer that was passing another tractor-trailer just prior to the bus leaving the highway. Seconds later the bus veered off the road, struck the guardrail, traveled 22 feet across the highway median, became airborne, slid down an embankment and struck the train, the report said.
At the time of the accident the area was under a weather advisory from the National Weather Service concerning dangerous driving conditions and was receiving freezing rain and drizzle.
The NTSB said in its report there were three other accidents in the same area that have been blamed on icy roads that morning, the last one occurring about 15 minutes prior to the deadly crash. In two of these crashes, an eastbound vehicle went out of control, crossed the center median, and traveled through the area of the previously damaged guardrail — possibly displacing it partially into the left traffic lane. A witness in a vehicle traveling forward of the bus reported that moments before the bus reached the overpass the guardrail wreckage was about 2 feet into the travel lane.
The crash killed eight offenders and two prison guards. Since the accident all of the offenders have been released from area hospitals and the lone surviving guard, 38-year-old Jason Self was moved Wednesday to a rehabilitation center in Lubbock, Tx,, a prison spokesman said in an email.
When asked if investigators have determined who was driving the bus at the time of the accident, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson told Digital Journal, “When our investigators left Texas, that determination had not yet been made.”
The NTSB said it will take between 12-16 months before a final report will be released.
