http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_289075059.html
Oct 16, 2005 8:58 am US/Central
Bus Wreck in Wisconsin Kills Several People
Interstate 94 Shut Down Both Directions
Students Traveling From Band Competition
Interstate 94 near Eau Claire, WI, is still shut down after a deadly bus crash.
A charter bus carrying high school students from Chippewa Falls, WI, crashed into a semi truck early today, killing several
people and injuring up to ten others.
The Wisconsin State Patrol says the accident happened around 2 a.m. about five miles west of Osseo, WI.
Investigators say the bus hit the semi, the truck jack knifed, then the bus crashed into it.
60 high school students were on the bus at the time of the crash. It's still unclear if the people who died were students or
adults who had been traveling with them.
The state patrol says the students had just finished playing in a band competition in Whitewater.
The student who were not injured were taken back to the high school in Chippewa Falls.
Police say Interstate 94 is still shut down for a seven-mile stretch between Foster and Oseeo.
Click on WCCO.COM for continuous updates and tune in to WCCO 4 News at 10 a.m. for a live report from the scene.
Tanker train car blast leaves 1 dead in Arkansas
Unit carrying flammable gas derailed and exploded; 2 homes, several vehicles destroyed
Associated Press
TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A tanker car transporting flammable gas derailed in a switching yard and exploded in a ball of fire Saturday, killing one person and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes.
A plume of smoke covered the south end of the city, and at least seven people went to hospital emergency rooms with complaints of respiratory problems.
At least two homes were destroyed -- including one where the victim died -- and several vehicles were totaled in the quarter-mile area surrounding the accident, police spokesman Chris Rankin said. A 209-foot-long railroad bridge also caught fire and was destroyed, a Union Pacific spokesman said.
The propylene tank was still burning Saturday evening, but the fire was under control and the smoke had thinned out, Rankin said.
Initially, police thought the chemical involved was vinyl acetate, which releases poisonous fumes. Officers went door to door, urging thousands of people in a 2-by-5-mile area to move to the northside of town. Propylene is less dangerous.
"The smoke was so thick it blocked out daylight," Rankin said.
A Union Pacific train coming from Chicago hit the back of another freight train in the rail yard, causing the eight cars to derail, said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis.
None of the railroad crew members was injured, he said.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/NEWS06/510160520/1012/NEWS06
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis, heading to the scene from Omaha, Neb., said the freight train coming from Chicago hit the back of another train in the rail yard, causing two empty hopper cars to derail. He said one of the cars hit "a small LPG tank" similar to what farmers use for fuel. Union Pacific did not know what caused the accident, he said.
The train was headed for Laredo, Texas, when it hit the back of the other Union Pacific freight train, which was coming from Pine Bluff and headed for Harlingen, Texas, Davis said.
Rankin said the switching yard is behind the police station, about a quarter mile from the Texas border and also serves Kansas City Southern and Amtrak.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1215647