All 14 people aboard a Houston METRO bus were rescued Saturday afternoon following a car crash that sent the bus reeling off an overpass.
The bus was carrying 13 passengers heading along the McGowan overpass at Highway 288 just east of Midtown, when the force of a vehicle that Houston Police say likely rear-ended the bus sent it through a barricade, down onto the sloping concrete side wall of the freeway main lanes, but not into the oncoming traffic of the freeway itself, which may have saved lives.
Officers were able to evacuate the 13 people on the bus plus the bus driver, who thought they were trapped on the bus when it initially slid down the wall.
Police say the bus driver appears to be all right, but the passengers and the driver of the second vehicle were taken to hospitals.
The driver of that second vehicle is in critical but stable condition, according to METRO.
The accident resulted in severe traffic snarls along Highway 288 and some east Downtown Houston side streets as medical and law enforcement personnel worked to save the passengers and the drivers.