Police: Truck driver says he was distracted before bus crash

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Monday, September 29, 2014
Officials examine part of the wreckage involved in a fatal highway accident in Davis, OK
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Authorities say the driver of a tractor-trailer that collided with a bus killing four members of a Texas community college softball team told them he had been distracted by something in his cabin before the accident.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Ronnie Hampton said Sunday that the truck driver, 53-year-old Russell Staley of Saginaw, Texas, told investigators he was distracted before crossing the median on Interstate 35 near Davis, Oklahoma, Friday night. Hampton declined to say what the distraction was. Hampton said that investigators do not necessarily agree with Staley's explanation.

Hampton said investigators had obtained search warrants to collect evidence from both the truck and the bus carrying 15 members of North Central Texas College women's softball team and their coach. Besides the deaths, a dozen people were injured.

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