Death toll in bus crash reaches 15

Fifteen people have now died as a result of the crash of a bus that was headed for the Marian Days observance in Carthage:

The bus, en route from Houston to Missouri with 55 people aboard, smashed into a guardrail and tipped over along the edge of the road at about 12:45 a.m., crushing one side of the vehicle and scattering luggage, clothes, a sandal and a blood-soaked pillow across the grass and pavement.

Ten people were taken to the hospital by helicopter, and some were in critical condition late Friday.

Passenger Leha Nguyen, 45, said passengers were dozing off when she heard a noise and screaming, and opened her eyes.

"Somebody was laying on my legs. A lady next to me, she had her arm crushed up. The lady who was on my left, a man was on top of her," she said at a hospital. She said nobody had been wearing seat belts, and people were strewn all over. A television had fallen on one person.

"I think I'm the luckiest one out of most people," she said.