LONDON — At least one person died and more than a dozen others were injured Saturday afternoon in Pope County when a Bentonville church bus returning from a conference in Little Rock crashed on Interstate 40 in London, Arkansas State Police and church officials said.
Troopers believe 35 passengers were aboard the First Baptist Church Bentonville bus when it rolled over near the 76-mile marker shortly after 5 p.m., fatally injuring Anna DelCarmen Ortez, 56, of Rogers, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said. Ortez was traveling with her mother, he said.
As of 9:30 p.m., at least 19 people had been reported injured and taken to hospitals in Russellville and Clarksville, Sadler said.
At least three of the injured were airlifted from the hospitals to Little Rock facilities for treatment.
The bus was traveling west when it crashed about a mile from the London exit. London is about a two-hour drive from Bentonville. A smashed 30-foot section of a metal guard rail and a scattering of glass shards were the only remaining signs of the crash about 8:30 p.m.
No other vehicles were believed to have been involved in the wreck, Sadler said.
Phillip Smith, pastor of the church, told The Associated Press that the bus was returning to Bentonville from a conference in Little Rock, carrying a group of pastors and their wives from Northwest Arkansas.
The group, which Sadler said included children, was scheduled to leave for the conference at 5:30 a.m.
Saturday and return at 7 p.m., according to the church’s online calendar. Church officials were sending another bus to pick up those who weren’t injured, Smith told the AP.
Erin Field of Bella Vista, who was returning home Saturday evening after a Girl Scout meeting in Little Rock, saw emergency vehicles up and down the interstate. She had been stuck in the traffic jam for about 30 minutes.
She saw emergency workers from Pope County sheriff’s office, the Pope County mass casualty unit, state police and the Locust Grove Fire Department.
The bus was lying on its right side near the westbound lanes, she said, and both lanes were open when she passed the wreck.
Information for this article was contributed by Ray Minor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 19 on 04/25/2010