NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The latest on the crash of a cross-country bus in North Little Rock, Arkansas:
8:15 a.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending investigators to Arkansas to look into a fatal bus crash in North Little Rock that killed as many as six people.
NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said the agency is conducting an investigation separate from the police investigation, and will look at safety issues related to the crash. He said investigators will focus on driver fatigue and how passengers were protected in the early Friday morning crash, but may look into other issues once they get on the scene.
Weiss didn’t have a specific timeline for how long the investigation would take.
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7:25 a.m.
The owner of a Michigan company whose name is emblazoned on a charter bus involved in a fatal crash in Arkansas says he’d recently sold a bus.
Jeff Lawson, who identified himself as the owner of Continental Charters in Detroit, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper that he sold the bus Saturday to a man who “said he needed a second bus to haul people from (Detroit) to Texas… and Florida.”
The bus that crashed early Friday on Interstate 40 in Arkansas had “Continental” displayed on the side.
Lawson says that as part of the sale, he stipulated that the buyer remove the “Continental” lettering from the bus. He says Continental Charters did not have any scheduled routes in Arkansas on Thursday and does not regularly operate in the area.
Lawson says the bus he sold is a 1997 Van Hool that was most recently inspected by his company in February or March.
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5:30 a.m.
Arkansas State Police say as many as six people were killed in an early morning charter bus crash along Interstate 40 in North Little Rock.
A number of injuries were also reported after the westbound bus left the cross-country highway and hit a bridge abutment early Friday. Many were transported from the scene in ambulances.
Troopers said they received reports about a single-vehicle crash around 1 a.m., shortly after strong storms had passed through the area. The National Weather Service said there was light rain and fog around the time of the accident, but it wasn’t immediately known if weather played a role in the crash.
Traffic was briefly diverted through North Little Rock, but one westbound lane of I-40 had been re-opened by 3 a.m. Traffic remains snarled.
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5:09 a.m.
Arkansas State Police say as many as six people were killed in an early morning charter bus crash along Interstate 40 in North Little Rock.
Multiple people with injuries have also been transported from the scene by ambulance.
Troopers received the reports about the single vehicle crash around 1 a.m. Friday. The bus was traveling westbound when it left the roadway and collided with an overpass abutment.
Westbound I-40 traffic near the crash was initially diverted through North Little Rock, but one westbound lane through the crash scene had been opened by 3 a.m.
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