Latest: Officials: Callers saw a pickup driving erratically
CONCAN, Texas (AP) - The Latest on a deadly crash involving a church bus and a pickup truck in southwest Texas (all times local):
3:50 p.m.
Law enforcement officials in two Texas counties say they received phone calls about a person in a white pickup truck driving erratically shortly before a deadly collision between a church bus and a pickup left 13 people dead.
Uvalde police Lt. Daniel Rodriguez says a man called about 12:02 p.m. Wednesday to report the swerving truck heading north on U.S. 83 and to ask deputies to respond. Deputies were dispatched, but Rodriguez says the same caller called back about 12:30 p.m. to say the truck had been in a collision.
Real County Constable Nathan Johnson also said that a woman called their county dispatch to report a truck matching the description was driving erratically in the same area shortly before the accident. The same woman also called back to report the accident.
The driver of the truck survived but is hospitalized.
The crash happened outside Garner State Park, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
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12:15 a.m.
A Texas pastor says the families of 13 church members killed in an auto accident came to the church hours after the wreck to cry and grieve together.
Brad McLean, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in New Braunfels, Texas, said during a news conference Thursday that the church's priority is care for and guide the families of those killed in the wreck a day earlier.
McLean said some of the victims were members of the church for years who had participated in mission trips together.
The group was returning from a three-day church retreat Wednesday when their small bus collided with a pickup truck that authorities say had drifted across the center line near the town of Concan.
Those killed ranged in age from 61 to 87.
One bus passenger is hospitalized, as is the 20-year-old truck driver.
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9:15 a.m.
The Texas Department of Public Safety says the 13 people on a church bus who were killed in a wreck ranged in age from 61 to 87 years old.
The group from First Baptist Church in New Braunfels, Texas, was returning from a three-day retreat Wednesday when their small bus collided with a pickup truck about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
The bus driver was among those killed. DPS identified him as 67-year-old Murray William Barrett of New Braunfels, a San Antonio suburb.
Ten of those killed came from New Braunfels.
The truck driver, 20-year-old Jack Dillon Young of Leakey, Texas, and bus passenger, 64-year-old Rose Mary Harris of New Braunfels, have been hospitalized.
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8:05 a.m.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman says a deadly collision between a church bus and a pickup truck appears to have happened after the truck driver crossed the center line on a curved road.
DPS Sgt. Orlando Moreno told reporters Wednesday evening that "for reasons unknown the truck veered into the southbound lane" before the crash that afternoon.
Moreno says the crash occurred along a curve in the road where the speed limit is 65 mph.
Another DPS spokesman, Lt. Johnny Hernandez, was more circumspect Thursday, saying the collision remains under investigation. Thirteen church members were killed in the accident. One bus passenger and the truck driver remain hospitalized.
The senior adults on the bus were members of First Baptist Church in New Braunfels, Texas.
The church says its members were returning from a three-day retreat.
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12:13 a.m.
Federal investigators are getting their first look at the scene of a head-on collision involving a small church bus and a pickup truck that killed 13 senior adult church members onboard the bus.
The Texas Department of Public Safety reports the lone bus survivor remains hospitalized in critical condition, and the pickup truck driver is in stable condition.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams says the agency sent investigators to the scene to start seeking the cause of the wreck.
DPS Lt. Johnny Hernandez says 12 bus occupants, including the driver, were dead at the scene of the crash midday Wednesday. He says one bus passenger died later at a San Antonio hospital.