Three die in Texas bus crash

The bus was shattered by the collision.

COLORADO CITY, Texas (CNN) -- At least three people died in a Greyhound bus accident near here early Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for bus line said.

Lt. Judy Altom said the bus collided with a tractor-trailer pulling out of a truck stop at about 4:30 a.m. CT (5:30 a.m. ET).

The truck swerved to avoid another vehicle and was rear-ended by the bus. The two people in the truck were not hurt, Altom said.

The bus, carrying 36 passengers and two drivers, was eastbound on Interstate 20 near this town about halfway between Abilene and Midland in west central Texas. Partly cloudy weather had been forecast for the area Sunday morning.

Most of the injured were taken to Mitchell County Hospital in Colorado City. Four of the more seriously injured were airlifted from there to other facilities, said Dr. Gus Gross, an emergency room physician. About 29 other people were treated and released, Greyhound said.

The bus was on the El Paso-Abilene leg of a trip that originated in Los Angeles, California, and was to end in Dallas, Texas. It was one of two buses traveling that route Sunday morning.

Greyhound set up a hotline for information about passengers: 800 972-4583.

The bus company had another fatal incident in Texas in May when a passenger was killed in a shootout with drug enforcement officers at the Pecos bus station.

In April, more than a dozen passengers were injured on Interstate 20 in eastern Georgia when a driver on a leased Greyhound bus fell asleep and rear-ended a tractor-trailer.

Six people were killed last October when a Greyhound bus crashed in Tennessee after one of the passengers slit the driver's throat.

Greyhound insisted that intercity bus transportation remains the safest way to travel. The company points to Department of Transportation statistics from 2000 that show only 11 fatalities a year from bus travel, compared to nearly 700 annually in plane accidents.