SUV limo crash one of deadliest traffic collisions in US history: Stats

By The Associated Press

A limousine carrying 18 people crashed over the weekend in upstate New York, killing all the occupants and two pedestrians, making it among the nation’s deadliest ground-traffic accidents. A look at some others:

— Sept. 23, 2005: A bus ferrying nursing home residents away from Hurricane Rita caught fire and exploded while stuck on a gridlocked highway south of Dallas, killing 23 people.

— May 9, 1999: A bus heading to a casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, ran off a highway on Mother’s Day, killing 22 people. Investigators said the driver was impaired by severe medical conditions and use of marijuana and an antihistamine.

— Sept. 21, 1989: A school bus collided with a soft drink trunk and fell into a water-filled pit near Mission, Texas. Twenty-one students were killed and 60 injured.

— May 14, 1988: A church bus returning from an amusement park collided head-on with a pickup near Carrollton, Kentucky, killing 24 children and three adults on the bus.

— May 30, 1986: A speeding Starline Sightseeing Tours coach crashed in a California canyon, killing 21 passengers.

— June 5, 1980: A tour bus carrying mostly senior citizens from Dallas to Branson, Missouri, plunged into a 40-foot ravine near Jasper, Arkansas, killing 20 people and injuring 13.

— May 21, 1976: A bus carrying students from the Yuba City, California, High School choir plunged off a freeway ramp near Martinez, killing 28 students and a teacher.

— Sept. 17, 1963: A makeshift bus carrying 58 migrant workers was struck by a freight train outside Chualar, California. Thirty-two workers died in what remains the deadliest motor vehicle accident in U.S. history.

— Feb. 28, 1958: A bus carrying 48 elementary and high school students went off the road in Prestonburg, Kentucky, lunged down an embankment and into swollen river waters, where it was swept downstream and submerged, killing 27.

— Aug. 4, 1952: Two Greyhound buses collided before dawn south of Waco, Texas, killing 28 people. Many soldiers and airmen were among the dead.

[Featured image: Tom Heffernan Sr. via AP]