ODESSA, Texas -- Eight inmates and two corrections officers died Wednesday when a prison bus skidded off an icy West Texas highway, slid down an embankment and collided with a passing freight train, authorities said.
The overpass on Interstate 20 was slick with ice Wednesday morning when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus left the roadway in Penwell, just west of Odessa, Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson said.
An earlier accident on the I-20 overpass may have contributed to the driver losing control of the prison bus, Donaldson said.
"It's as bad as you can imagine," Odessa Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Kavin Tinney told the Odessa American newspaper. "In 32 years it's as bad as anything I've seen."
A prison system statement identified the dead as correctional officers Christopher Davis, 53, and Eligio Garcia, 45; and inmates Byron Wilson, 34; Tyler Townsend, 29; Jesus Reyna, 44; Kaleb Wise, 22; Adolfo Ruiz, 32; Michael Sewart, 25; Angel Vasquez, 31; and Jeremiah Rodriguez, 35.
The statement did not say which officer was driving the bus. Davis had more than 17 years of service with the department, and Garcia had nearly 23 years of service. The inmates were serving sentences that ranged from one year for labeling unauthorized recordings to 20 years for drug possession with intent to distribute, according to online prison records.
Correctional officer Jason Self, 38, and inmates Terry Johnson, 22, and Damien Rodriguez, 22, were hospitalized in critical condition, the prison system said. Inmates Remigio Pineda, 34, and Hector Rivera, 37, were in serious condition.
"It's with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of those killed and injured this morning in a tragic accident," said Brad Livingston, executive director of the department. "Their loved ones will be in our thoughts and prayers."
Jason Clark, a department spokesman, said the bus was new and had been placed in service in the summer. It was taking the inmates from the Middleton prison in Abilene to the Sanchez prison in El Paso, he said.
The prisoners were handcuffed together in pairs, but there were no leg restraints, said Jason Heaton, agency director for the region. Only the driver's seat had a seat belt, he said.
In the accident around 7:30 a.m., the white bus ended up on its side, next to the railroad tracks, crumpled with heavy damage to its front and undercarriage. The top of the bus was caved in.
The Union Pacific freight train with four locomotives and 58 cars stopped soon after the wreck. None of the cars derailed, but two containers at the rear of the train were damaged, said Mark Davis, a railroad spokesman.
The train, which was traveling from the Los Angeles area to Marion, Ark., remained stopped at the accident site several hours after the wreck, Davis said.
"We'll send crews to inspect the train, inspect the track," he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team of inspectors to the scene.
In June, an inmate was killed and several other people were injured when a Criminal Justice Department van collided with a car in central Texas.
Information for this article was contributed by Diana Heidgerd of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/15/2015