Texas prison bus crash: 10 people dead after train collision

Ten people are reportedly dead after a bus carrying prisoners lost control on an icy highway overpass and collided with a train near Odessa, Texas, officials say.

Sheriff Mark Donaldson said the bus skidded off an overpass and slid down an embankment before hitting the train.

Texas officials said the bus was carrying 12 prisoners and three corrections officers from one prison in Abilene to another in El Paso.

Two corrections officers and eight inmates died in the crash, the Corrections Department said in a statement. The five other people on the bus – four inmates and one corrections officer – have been transported to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.

A Union Pacific spokesman said there were no injures on the train, but the railcars have not moved since the crash.

In a statement, the Texas criminal justice department said eight prisoners and two corrections officers were killed.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of those killed and injured this morning in a tragic accident,” executive director Brad Livingston said.

“Their loved ones will be in our thoughts and prayers.”