Skip to footer

Four Texas college softball players killed in bus crash with truck

Four young women at North Central Texas College were killed Friday when a tractor-trailer collided with a van carrying the school softball team. The team was returning to Texas after a scrimmage with the Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla.

|
Steve Sisney/The Oklahoman/AP
Four members of a Texas college softball team died after a tractor trailer crossed over the center median on Interstate 35 and collided with the team's bus in Davis, Okla. Friday night.
  • By Associated Press

| Davis, Okla.

Four members of a Texas college softball team were killed after a tractor-trailer crossed the center median and collided with the team's van Friday night just south of Turner Falls, authorities said.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Ronnie Hampton said three young women — all members of the North Central Texas College softball team — died at the scene following the accident that happened on Interstate 35 about 9 p.m. Friday. A fourth woman died at a hospital.

It was not immediately known how many people were on the bus. None of the victims have been identified.

The softball team was returning to North Central Texas College in Gainseville after playing a scrimmage with Southern Nazarene University in Bethany earlier Friday.

"What we do know is that the semi (truck) was headed north on I-35 when he departed the roadway and entered the southbound lanes," Hampton told The Oklahoman. "When it impacted the bus, it just kept going and went off the side of road. ... We knew we had a two-vehicle accident by what we saw at the scene. ... But it took about an hour before we found the semi."

The front end of the team van was virtually untouched while the sides of the vehicle were heavily damaged. Troopers and witnesses said the driver's side of the van sustained the worst damage.

Hampton said the van's driver — who also is the coach of the softball team — declined treatment at the scene and escaped without serious injury. The driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to a hospital for treatment and is expected to survive.

"Right now, it's being investigated like a homicide," Hampton said, adding that both drivers will undergo standard toxicology tests. Hampton said details of thecrash were still not known but "something happened to cause (the semi-tractor driver) to depart the roadway and impact the other vehicle." He said the accident will remain under investigation for several weeks.

A Post on the North Central Texas College Facebook page reads: "We ask for your prayers at this time for our softball team. Their bus has been involved in an accident in Oklahoma."

The school is expected to release a statement later Saturday.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Four Texas college softball players killed in bus crash with truck
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0927/Four-Texas-college-softball-players-killed-in-bus-crash-with-truck
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe