Arizona Charter Bus Crash Kills One, Leaves Nine Injured [Video]

Authorities say one person was killed an at least nine others were injured Tuesday when a pickup truck going the wrong way on an Arizona freeway struck a charter bus head-on.

According to CBS5AZ News, the crash happened at around 2:15 pm when a pickup truck was traveling east in the westbound lanes on Interstate 10 in Casa Grande, about 50 miles south of Phoenix, Arizona.

The pickup truck collided head-on with the charter bus and burst into flames, killing the driver of the truck.

Nine of the 15 passengers on the bus were also injured in the crash and taken to a nearby hospitals, but none of the injuries were considered life-threatening, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety Captain Brian Preston.

“Generally when you have a vehicle going the wrong way on an interstate, you’d think it would be much worse than this,” Preston said.

Preston identified the driver of the truck as 78-year-old Francis Wilkens Gibson Jr. and said the bus, which is owned by TBC Connection, was traveling from Mexico and was headed to Phoenix. The names, ages, and hometowns of the bus driver and passengers weren’t immediately released.

After the accident, authorities closed the westbound lanes of the freeway near Interstate 8 for hours, backing up traffic for miles until one lane was reopened Tuesday evening.

At the time of this writing, the cause of the crash was still under investigation.

KPHO has more details on the Casa Grande, Arizona charter bus crash in the video below: