A damaged OGA Charters bus is hauled away after a fatal rollover on Saturday, May 14, 2016, south of the Dimmit-Webb County line on U.S. 83 North in Texas. (Laredo Texas, Nuevo Laredo Mexico out, Mandatory... (Associated Press) 
 
 A damaged OGA Charters bus is hauled away after a fatal rollover on Saturday, May 14, 2016, south of the Dimmit-Webb County line on U.S. 83 North in Texas. (Laredo Texas, Nuevo Laredo Mexico out, Mandatory credit Danny Zaragoza | Laredo Morning Times.) (Associated Press) 
 
 LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas on Saturday, killing eight people and injuring 44 others in a one-vehicle rollover, officials said. 
 
 Seven people died at the scene on U.S. Highway 83 about 46 miles north of Laredo and another died later at a Laredo hospital, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein said. 
 
 "The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over," he said. "Everything's real preliminary right now." 
 
 Hein said the driver was among the survivors. His name and the names of passengers were not immediately available, Hein said. 
 
 The trooper said it was raining Saturday morning but it was uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30 a.m. He said no other vehicles were in the area at the time. 
 
 "Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it's going to take us some time," he said of the investigation. "We just know the driver lost control." 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday night it was sending a team to also investigate the wreck. They were expected to arrive Sunday. 
 
 Webb County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ricardo Rangel told the Laredo Morning Times the bus belonged to OGA Charters was headed to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo. The bus company is based in San Juan, in Hidalgo County in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. A message left at the bus company Saturday was not immediately returned. 
 
 Hein said 23 people were taken to Doctors Hospital in Laredo, where the eighth victim died. Fifteen were taken to Laredo Medical Center. Seven were taken to a Dimmit County hospital in Carrizo Springs. 
 
 Priscilla Salinas, a spokeswoman for Laredo Medical Center, said bus passengers being treated there were in stable condition. She said she could share no additional information. 
 
 The highway at the accident scene was reopened by early evening. Laredo about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. 
 
 The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years. In January 2015, two state corrections officers and eight inmates were killed after their Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus struck a piece of displaced highway guardrail west of Odessa. The bus fell about 20 feet before striking a Union Pacific freight train that happened to be passing beneath the highway. Last Thursday, the NTSB concluded that the wreck was caused by the bus hitting the guardrail piece. 
 
 Seventeen passengers died in 2008 near Sherman when their bus plunged over a highway bridge on their way to a religious retreat in Missouri. The NTSB blamed that crash on a retreaded tire on the right front axle that was punctured by an unknown object. 
 
 Although the retread itself wasn't the cause, the panel noted that the tire was affixed to the front axle illegally, the bus company didn't have the authority to leave Texas after failing an inspection three months earlier, and the company that inspected the bus wasn't equipped to judge whether it was roadworthy. The owner of the Houston bus company was charged with making false statements but avoided prison in 2014 after a federal judge sentenced him to three years of probation in a plea agreement. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Information from: Laredo Morning Times, http://www.lmtonline.com ||||| Updated material from The Associated Press: 
 
 The small South Texas bus company involved in a rollover crash that killed eight people and injured 44 others had been ordered twice by Louisiana state inspectors in 2015 to take one of its buses off the road to fix brake and emergency exit problems. 
 
 Records posted online by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show that regulators ordered OGA Charters to sideline the bus in May 2015 because of brake problems and again in August of last year when they were getting worse. 
 
 It was not immediately clear Sunday whether that was same charter bus that crashed Saturday about 45 miles north of Laredo or what steps the company took to fix the problems with its sidelined bus between inspections. 
 
 The Laredo Morning Times identified the victims as Altagracia Torres, 61; Maria de Jesus Musquiz, 52; Dora Nelly Gonzalez, 68; Frances Guerrero, 52; Marisela Lopez, 60; Adelfa Garza, 63; Jaime Navarro, 60; and Emma Rodriguez Zamudio, 81. 
 
 A Webb County official retracted a statement Sunday that a ninth person had died from injuries from the crash. 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Sunday in Laredo to try to determine a cause of the crash. Spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency will look at the operations of the company as part of its investigation but declined further comment. 
 
 According to federal online records, OGA Charters has two buses and the Motor Carrier Safety Administration had it listed with a “satisfactory” rating in May 2014. 
 
 Records noted that the company had reported no crashes in the last two years prior to Saturday. But six driver and vehicle inspections since 2014 found 15 total violations, ranging from driver records and hours they were on the road, to vehicle maintenance problems. 
 
 The May 2015 inspection in Louisiana reported brake connections with leaks, problems with the automatic brake adjustment system and a discolored windshield. The bus was put out of service because 20 percent or more of its brakes were defective. 
 
 The records don’t name the Louisiana community where the inspection occurred. 
 
 Another Louisiana inspection just four months later found “general” brake problems, citing some of the same problems, and the emergency exit issue. Details of the emergency exit problem were not immediately available. The report also noted the discolored windshield problem and again ordered the bus out of service. 
 
 That the same bus, whether it was the one involved in the deadly crash or not, continued to have brake problems a few months after its initial inspection is a concern, said Shaun Kildare, director of research for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks bus crashes and federal highway safety regulations. 
 
 “We know this carrier had the vehicle violation problems,” Kildare said. “They apparently didn’t do anything. … When they have vehicle problems they don’t fix, that’s a question.” 
 
 The rate of violations for hours of service was marked as a problem area by federal regulators. 
 
 Officials at OGA Charters, based in San Juan, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment. 
 
 Seven people died at the scene of Saturday’s crash and another died at a hospital, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein said Saturday. 
 
 “The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over,” he said. “Everything’s real preliminary right now.” 
 
 Hein said the driver was among the survivors. Hein did not release the identity of the driver or any passengers. 
 
 The trooper said it was raining Saturday morning but it was uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30 a.m. He said no other vehicles were in the area at the time. 
 
 “Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it’s going to take us some time,” he said of the investigation. “We just know the driver lost control.” 
 
 Department of Public Safety officials did not immediately return phone messages Sunday. 
 
 Webb County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ricardo Rangel told the Laredo Morning Times the bus was heading to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo. 
 
 The injured were taken to hospitals in Laredo, Carrizo Springs and San Antonio. ||||| Update on Friday morning: 
 
 Sue Taylor was one of two people killed in Thursday’s crash. Read a profile in today’s paper by Eden Stiffman, as well as our full coverage of the crash. 
 
 Update at 5:04 p.m. from Eden Stiffman: Marsha Taylor, 56, is the daughter of “Casino” Sue Taylor, 81, who organized today’s trip. 
 
 According to Marsha, there are four people who still haven’t been located. Her mother is one of them. 
 
 “Parkland people have been awesome, but they can’t locate them,” Marsha said. 
 
 She and her husband have spent the day at Parkland. “We were told officially that of the two deceased, she was not one of them.” 
 
 Sue, who lives in Hurst, has been organizing similar trips for seniors to casinos for ten years, though she had not always used Cardinal buses. 
 
 “They used to go weekly, now they go once a month,” Marsha said. “They play games on the bus and they have a wonderful time. These are some of her very good friends and loyal customers.” 
 
 One of Sue’s best friends lost her arm in the accident. 
 
 “I’ve just never been through anything like this, and I hope I never do again,” Marsha said. 
 
 Update at 1:35 p.m.: 
 
 Anyone who may have had family or friends on the bus can call authorities for more information at 972-721-4636. 
 
 The bus will remain at the scene of the crash for several hours, so commuters who use the northbound turnpike to get home may want to seek an alternate route home, Trooper Lonny Haschel says. 
 
 The southbound lanes remain open. 
 
 Update at 1:09 p.m.: The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched two Arlington-based investigators to the crash site, says Washington, D.C.-based spokesman Keith Holloway. 
 
 He says they aren’t looking for “anything specific,” but will review Cardinal Coach Line Inc.’s maintenance and safety records. 
 
 “We don’t look to point blame,” Holloway says. “We look from a purely safety perspective, if there were issues regarding maintenance. We will not take the bus, but we will document the scene and gather information.” 
 
 He says the investigation is expected to take about 12 to 18 months to complete. 
 
 The Department of Public Safety has said that no other cars were involved in the accident, which seems to suggest a mechanical failure or driver error led to the crash. 
 
 Brigham McCown, former chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation under President George W. Bush, says the agency will conduct its own audit of Cardinal and assist the NTSB in its investigation. 
 
 He won’t speculate on the exact cause of today’s crash, but says it could be due to several factors, chief among them “a blown tire or defective brakes” or an “external factor, such as the highway or another motorist.” 
 
 But there is one thing he’s sure of: There might not have been deaths and injuries had the bus been equipped with seat belts. And the Department of Transportation does not require them. 
 
 “To make that recommendation the Department of Transportation has to do a cost benefit analysis — the benefits have to outweigh the costs,” says McCown, who’s now a transportation consultant based out of Southlake. “It’s too expensive to retrofit all buses. My argument is we can take a phased approach, and all new buses should have seat belts. Although buses are pretty safe, and although 750 million people travel on buses every year, seat belts could reduce injuries and deaths by 77 percent, according to government statistics. That’s a huge number.” 
 
 What happened today, he said, “is tragic, and these things can and should be prevented. In this day and age there’s no reason not to have a seat belt on a bus.” 
 
 Update at 12:55 p.m.: The southbound lanes of the Bush Turnpike have reopened to traffic. 
 
 It’s unclear when the northbound side, where the crash happened, might reopen. 
 
 Update at 12:40 p.m. from Eric Aasen at Cardinal’s bus barn in Grand Prairie: 
 
 The owner of the bus line remains at the crash scene, but authorities are waiting to speak to him in Grand Prairie. 
 
 Robert Hurtado, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Transportation, said the owner has been cooperative so far, but there’s been nothing confirmed yet about the driver or what happened to cause the crash 
 
 Hurtado said agents will talk with the owner and review company records including paperwork such as maintenance records and logbooks and driver info. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, along with TxDOT. An interview with the owner is expected to happen this afternoon, but the timing is up in the air. 
 
 Update at 12:15 p.m. from Christina Rosales at the scene and Eden Stiffman at Parkland: 
 
 Irving police spokesman John Argumaniz described a chaotic scene immediately after the crash. 
 
 He said all patrol and tactical officers were pulled from their usual duties and sent to the crash scene. Dozens of officers and good Samaritans did their best to pull passengers from the wreckage as other emergency personnel arrived. DART police also lent a hand. 
 
 In all, there were 41 people taken to area hospitals, according to the Irving Fire Department. 
 
 At one point, after many of the injured were taken away, a paramedic broke down in tears and was comforted by an Irving firefighter, our Tom Fox reports. 
 
 Now authorities must identify each injured person and determine which hospital there were sent to. 
 
 “There’s a lot of anxious families out there, so what were trying to do is get through the passenger list and find out where everybody is going.” 
 
 The most seriously injured were taken to Parkland. Alex Eastman, disaster medical director and interim trauma medical director at Parkland, said they received 15 people, with four of them in critical condition. The driver was among the victims to Parkland, all of whom were conscious and talking when they were admitted. 
 
 All the patients are between 66 and 80 years old. 
 
 Fourteen other patients were taken to Baylor in Irving, our Avi Selk reports from the hospital. All of them had moderate injuries, and most were expected to be released today. 
 
 Click on photo to see slideshow Click on photo to see slideshow link link link link link link link link 
 
 Here’s more on the bus company from Ray Leszcynski: 
 
 Cardinal Coach Line Inc. organized in May 2007, and its five registered buses have had no crashes on record for the last two years. 
 
 filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in December 2008. The bankruptcy was discharged in March 2009. The company achieved a satisfactory safety rating on March 22, 2009. 
 
 It had violations on its most recent inspection, July 29, 2011. There was no medical certificate in one driver’s possession and a required lamp was inoperable on one of the vehicles. 
 
 The company does a little over $2 million in annual business and runs its five buses 250,000 miles a year. It employs seven drivers and 12 people total including the owner, wife and sales representative listed on the website. 
 
 Update at 11:23 a.m. from Mia Castillo and Eleanor Sadler: 
 
 Here’s a rundown of those injured in the bus accident, from Paul Pepe at UT Southwestern Medical (who is at the scene): 
 
 Four of those injured are in critical condition, and one is already in surgery because of internal injuries, Pepe said. 
 
 Eleven people were taken to Parkland, and 11 others were taken to Baylor Medical Center in Irving. 
 
 Others were taken to Las Colinas Medical Center. 
 
 Authorities have not yet determined the names of the injured or the two people killed, Trooper Lonny Haschel said. 
 
 Haschel said the Bush Turnpike/Highway 161 will remain closed to traffic for an extended period of time. 
 
 “Folks should not travel 161,” he said. “Seek an alternate route.” 
 
 Update at 11 a.m., by Matthew Watkins and Avi Selk, who spoke to someone on that bus: 
 
 Daniel Risik, 73, said he was on the bus with about 35 to 40 who were picked up from a Walmart in Fort Worth and a shopping center in Bedford to take them to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Okla. He said most of the people on the bus were elderly. 
 
 Risik, of Fort Worth, said he believes the bus lost control after a tire blew out. 
 
 “We ended up swirling and weaving and then ended up on the side,” he said. “People were screaming and hollering, a very traumatic situation to say the least.” 
 
 Most people weren’t wearing seat belts and were tossed throughout the bus, which was carrying a group of casino regulars on a trip organized by a woman nicknamed Casino Sue. 
 
 “People were piled on top of each other,” he said. “It was unbelievable. A lady had pinned me. Rescue got there and started pulling people out of a roof emergency hatch. People were hollering, screaming, there was blood all over the place. It was unbelievable.” 
 
 Risik said that two people died in the crash. 
 
 “There was several other significant injuries, people that were put on stretchers,” he said. 
 
 Risik said he’d served in the Vietnam War in the Air Force, but the carnage in the bus was “something else.” 
 
 “You see these scenes on TV,” he said. “Like an airplane crash or something.” 
 
 As he lay pinned between his buddy below him and a woman on top of him, Risik said, some good Samaritans “tried to do what they could.” 
 
 But he wasn’t freed until emergency crews got in through the windows and dragged him out. He escaped with some scrapes and a bloody nose, 
 
 still visible as a doctor wheeled him out of Baylor Irving Thursday afternoon. 
 
 Update at 10:51 a.m., from staff writers Eleanor Sadler (at the scene) and Robert Wilonsky: 
 
 The bus was northbound on the turnpike when it went off the right side of the road for unknown reasons, state troopers say. 
 
 After striking a rubber crash barrier on the east side of the tollway, it crossed both northbound lanes and struck the concrete barrier in the middle of the highway, preventing the bus from careening into oncoming traffic. 
 
 That’s when it flipped onto the grassy area in the middle of the turnpike, according to Trooper Lonny Haschel. He said no other vehicles were involved in the crash. 
 
 As emergency responders tended to the injured, a red tarp was draped across the back of overturned bus where half a dozen firefighters stood over where the bodies were believed to be. A few hundred yards away, tire tracks covered a concrete barrier where the bus crashed. 
 
 Haschel says there were a total of 36 people on board and two people were killed. Several others are injured as well. 
 
 “We’re in the process of taking witness statements, talking to folks on the bus, trying to determine what happened,” Haschel said, adding that the survivors suffered from “a complete range of injuries … folks that were not injured at all, to cuts and scrapes to internal injuries.” 
 
 Parkland spokesman Mike Malaise tells our Eden Stiffman that nine patients have been accepted and they are still assessing their condition. They are still accepting other patients. 
 
 Two Dallas Area Rapid Transit buses were also sent to the scene at the request of Dallas Fire-Rescue. Mark Ball, a DART spokesman, says they were sent just after 9 this morning. 
 
 “We provide service like this to cities in our service area,” says Ball. “Most often we’re called on to move people dislocated by large fires in multifamily residences, for example. But we’re also asked to keep people warm or cool when called upon.” 
 
 When they arrived, the DART buses were essentially turned over to the Department of Public Safety, says Ball, which can use the buses as they see fit — either to shelter or transport victims, in this case. 
 
 Update at 10:35 a.m.: 
 
 State troopers are now confirming that at least two victims have died in the bus crash this morning. 
 
 Many others on board were seriously injured and flown to several area hospitals. The most seriously injured were taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, which set up a triage area for family. 
 
 Here’s more information on the bus company from our Matthew Watkins: Cardinal Coach Line offers tours and charter service from Dallas-Fort Worth to “all points, local or long distance in the United States or Canada,” according to its website. 
 
 The company offers tour bus and charter services to groups ranging from 20 to 57 passengers, the website says. 
 
 According to a U.S. Department of Transportation database, the company employs seven drivers and uses five busses. Prior to today, the company had not experienced a crash in the past two years. It’s last compliance review was in 2009, when it received a “satisfactory” rating. 
 
 Update at 10:20 a.m.: 
 
 Witnesses say victims may still be pinned under the bus, and several media outlets are reporting that two people were killed in the roll-over crash. 
 
 The Dallas County medical examiner’s office was called to the scene, though officials there are not confirming deaths. 
 
 DFW Scanner reports via Twitter, “Command is advising 16 patients in critical condition.” 
 
 Many of those on board the bus were described as older folks, on their way to Choctaw Casino Resort across the border in Oklahoma. 
 
 NBC-Channel 5 is reporting that at least 40 people were on the bus. Witnesses are telling several media outlets that the passengers, most of whom were elderly, were not wearing seat belts. 
 
 As noted below, it appears they were headed to Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma. 
 
 Parkland, one of the hospitals to which victims will be taken, is at code yellow. 
 
 Original item at 9:38 a.m.: Emergency crews, including all available ambulances in the area, have been called to an enormous accident northbound State Highway 161 and Belt Line Rd. According to initial reports, including KXAS-Channel 5, a charter bus turned over, and as many as 40 people may be trapped. Firefighters and police officers are still in the bus trying to rescue passengers. 
 
 The live video above shows rescue workers transporting the injured to red blankets, where they’re being treated before being transported to the hospital via CareFlite helicopters and ambulance. The injured are being taken to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, Parkland Hospital and Methodist Dallas Medical Center. 
 
 WFAA-Channel 8 is reporting that one person is trapped under the bus, and that “a multitude of the injured are elderly.” 
 
 DFW Scanner is reporting that is being labeled “a mass casualty incident.” 
 
 All lanes of S.H. 161/President George Bush Turnpike between Belt Line and the tollbooth are shut down. 
 
 Jon Sasser, an executive producer at WFAA-Channel 8, is reporting that the charter bus is from Cardinal Coach Line based out of Mansfield. Our calls to Cardinal have gone unanswered. 
 
 A victim on the bus tells Channel 5 they were on their way to Choctaw Casino Resort. 
 
 We have folks headed that way. More information to come.
– A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring 43 others in a one-vehicle rollover, officials tell the AP. Seven people died at the scene on US Highway 83 about 46 miles north of Laredo and two died later at a Laredo hospital, per Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein. "The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over," he says. "Everything's real preliminary right now." Hein says the driver was among the survivors. His name and the names of passengers were not immediately available, the Dallas Morning News reports. The trooper says it was raining Saturday morning but it's uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30am. A family member who had three aunts on board, one of whom was killed, says a trooper told her the bus rolled over three times, the Laredo Morning Times reports. Fighting back tears, she says some passengers were trapped inside and others flew out windows. Hein says no other vehicles were in the area at the time. "Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it's going to take us some time," he says of the investigation. "We just know the driver lost control." The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday night it was sending a team to also investigate the wreck. They were expected to arrive Sunday. The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years.