At least four people were killed in New Mexico on Thursday after a Greyhound passenger bus collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck that jumped a highway median strip, and the death toll was expected to rise, the New Mexico State Police said.
A tire blew out on the eastbound truck, which then jumped the grass median and struck the Greyhound bus traveling in the opposite direction, New Mexico State Police Officer Ray Wilson told a news conference.
The bus was carrying 49 passengers, a Greyhound spokeswoman said. It collided with the truck around 12:30 p.m. on Interstate 40 near the city of Thoreau, located about 100 miles west of Albuquerque, the state police said.
All but six people on the bus were taken to area hospitals, said Wilson, who said the death toll was expected to rise.
Greyhound Lines spokeswoman Crystal Booker said the bus was headed from Albuquerque to Phoenix. She deferred comment regarding the crash to the state police.
The National Transportation Safety Board will send investigators to the scene, Wilson said. Investigators were unsure what cargo the truck was carrying, but Wilson said “there are a lot of vegetables” at the crash site.
Wilson said he did not know whether speed was a contributing factor to the crash.
Photos on social media showed a truck on its side with the trailer’s cargo scattered across the highway, and the Greyhound bus sitting upright with its front end obliterated.
Gallup Indian Health Services received 37 of the injured, said Jennifer Buschick, spokeswoman for the Gallup hospital. Six people with injuries too severe to be treated there were stabilized and transferred to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.
Three of the six patients taken to UNMH were listed in critical condition and the condition of the others was not released, said spokeswoman Cindy Foster.
The westbound lanes of I-40 were closed because of the crash, state police said.
