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Rescue workers attend to victims at the scene of a Cardinal Coach Line charter bus accident on Hwy. 161 in Irving, Texas, on April 11.(Photo: Tom Fox, Dallas Morning News, via AP)

Story Highlights

• Charter bus hit a concrete barrier and flipped
• Irving Fire Department officials said 45 people were on the passenger list
• Bus was en route to the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla.

At least two people were killed and 41 injured Thursday when a charter bus carrying elderly people to an Oklahoma casino flipped after it veered into a rubber barrier, careened across two lanes and hit a concrete barrier on a grassy divide along the President George Bush Turnpike near Dallas.

The Dallas Morning News reported that 15 of the most seriously injured, including the driver, were taken to Parkland Hospital and that four were in critical condition. All of the injured were between 66 and 80 years old and were conscious and talking when the arrived.

The Cardinal Coach Lines bus carried 45 passengers, the Irving Fire Department said.

Many passengers were trapped beneath the bus, according to rescue teams and passersby who stopped to help. Police and emergency workers used ladders to get to emergency exits on top to reach passengers trapped inside.

The bus crashed about 9:10 a.m. CT as it was headed to the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla., on a one-day gambling outing, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The newspaper said the passengers are believed to have boarded the bus in Hurst, Texas.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lonny Haschel said the bus hit an "impact attenuator," the barrel-like crash cushion used to reduce the effects of high-speed impact on my expressways. The bus then bounced across the lanes onto the grassy area, hit a concrete barrier and turned over.

"If it hadn't been for the concrete barrier, the bus would have been into the southbound lanes," he said.

Rescue teams worked to remove as many as 40 elderly passenger on a charter bus that crashed Thursday on a turnpike in Irving, Texas, near Dallas.(Photo: NBCDFW.com)

Robert Hare, a passerby, told NBC5 that he pulled a half dozen people from the bus and that "bodies and blood" were everywhere.

Hare said many of the passenger were "screaming" and many were in shock. Many where shouting "Help me, help!"

Irving Texas

Passenger Dan Risik told NBC5, that he heard a crash "and the bus started to veer back and forth and ended up flipping over on its side. People were screaming on top of each other."

Another passenger told him she believed that a tire had blown out.

Risik, who suffered only a bloody nose, said the gambling trip was organized regularly by a woman the group called "Casino Sue."

Edward Cluck, another passerby who stopped to help, said smoke was pouring from the bus and fuel ran onto the highway, WFAA-TV reported.

"The front of the bus was completely tore off," he said. "The people were all packed on top of each other, falling out of their seats. ... Man, pray for them. They need some help."

The crash occurred on northbound State Highway 161, an extension of the President George Bush Turnpike, near the North Belt Line Road in Irving.

No other vehicles were involved, the Department of Public Safety said.

The Star-Telegram reported that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the charter company, based in Mansfield, Texas, had no crashes in the past 24 months.

Two National Transportation Safety Board investigators were sent to the scene. The investigation is expected to take between 12 to 18 months, an agency spokesman said.

Contributing: Associated Press