Arkansas Bus Crash Leaves One Dead, 20 Hospitalized

BENTON, Ark. (AP) - The Latest on the fatal Arkansas crash of a charter bus carrying a youth football team from Tennessee (all times local):

3 p.m.

A Memphis public school superintendent says a third grader from one of its charter schools was killed in a bus crash in central Arkansas.

Speaking at a news conference Monday afternoon, Aspire Public Schools superintendent Nickalous Manning did not reveal the boy's name, but said he was "full of life, full of energy."

At least 45 other people were injured when a charter bus plowed off an interstate and tumbled down an embankment near Benton, Arkansas, before dawn Monday.

Manning says the loss of the boy is "going to be hard to heal from."

Bobby White, a spokesman for the Achievement School District in Memphis, said students from five of the district's schools were in the bus that crashed.

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6:35 a.m.

Authorities say one child is dead and more than 20 people are hospitalized after a charter bus crashed in Arkansas while carrying a Tennessee youth football team.

Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock says it received more than 20 patients following the Monday morning crash. Authorities say as many as 40 people were injured, most of them children. No information about the severity of the injuries was immediately available.

Arkansas State Police say the wreck happened along Interstate 30 near Benton, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock. State police say the charter bus was traveling from Texas to Memphis, Tennessee.

                Memphis TV station WMC reports that the bus was carrying a football team from the Orange Mound Youth Association in Tennessee that had played in a tournament in Dallas over the weekend. The station reports the children are elementary-school age.

State police say the bus overturned after driving off the interstate. The bus driver is being questioned by troopers

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6 a.m.

Authorities say a charter bus carrying a youth football team has crashed in Arkansas, killing one child and injuring at least 40 other people.

Arkansas State Police say the wreck happened early Monday along Interstate 30 near Benton, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock. State police say the charter bus was traveling from Texas to Memphis, Tennessee.

Police say the bus was carrying a football team that had played in a championship game in Dallas over the weekend. Police say most of the injured are children who were taken to hospitals in Little Rock and Benton.

Authorities did not immediately identify which school was involved. State police say the bus overturned after driving off the interstate. The bus driver is being questioned by troopers.

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