OKLAHOMA -- Four young women died after a tractor-trailer crashed into a bus carrying members of a college women's softball team late Friday in southern Oklahoma, a law enforcement spokesman said.
The bus, which belonged to North Central Texas College, was transporting its softball team back from a game, the school said. It was carrying 15 female students and one male coach.
"The semi departed the roadway to the left and traveled into the median and crossed the median, entering the southbound lane where it impacted the bus," said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Cpt. Ronnie Hampton.
The college website identified the victims as Brooke Deckard, 20, of Scurry, Texas; Jaiden Pelton, 20, of Telephone, Texas; Meagan Richardson, 19, of Wylie, Texas; and Katelynn Woodlee, 18, of Windom, Texas.
The National Transportation and Safety Board was sending a team to investigate the accident, which occurred on Interstate 35 in the Arbuckle Mountains near Davis, about 60 miles from the main campus of NCTC and an hour south of Oklahoma City.
Eleven students were taken to the hospital, as well as the driver of the tractor-trailer, Hampton said. Two of the injured were flown by air ambulance to the Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
Earlier, the highway patrol had reported that two semis were involved in the accident but later revised that to one truck.
NCTC is a two-year school in north Texas. The college scheduled a prayer vigil for 8 p.m. Sunday on the school's main campus in Gainesville.
NCTC President Brent Wallace said at a press conference that the school's other traveling athletic teams were called back to campus because of the tragedy.
