A semi truck driver and a high school track coach were killed in a three-vehicle collision in East Texas on Thursday night.
It happened on Highway 271 near Mt. Pleasant, Texas, 100 miles northeast of Dallas, around 10:45 p.m.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the tractor trailer was traveling on northbound Highway 271 when it swerved into oncoming traffic for unknown reasons and struck a Mt. Pleasant Independent School District bus carrying a boys high school track team.
The driver of the semi truck, 50-year-old Bradley Ray Farmer from Bogard, Missouri, was killed in the crash. 18 people on the school bus were also injured, Fox-4 news reported.
30-year-old coaching assistant Angelica Beard was traveling behind the bus in her personal car and was unable to stop in time after the initial crash. Beard was killed after her car collided with the school bus.
An 18-wheeler struck the bus, flipping it. 18 students on board injured. At least one seriously injured. Driver of 18-wheeler has died pic.twitter.com/AucT8CrYKk
— Stephanie Esquivel (@S_ESQUIVEL_TV) March 24, 2017
“She was in her own car. When our bus got hit by the 18-wheeler, there was no time for her to get out of the way,” Marshall ISD Superintendent Judd Marshall told reporters.
An investigation is underway to determine why the semi driver swerved into oncoming traffic.
