Report Indicates Prison Bus Plummeted due to Damaged Guardrail

A preliminary highway report released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week indicates that the Penwell prison bus crash might have proved fatal due to a damaged guardrail on I-20.

The report, which provides an outline of findings the investigative body has turned up since the crash, states that a 225-foot long metal beam guardrail leading up to the over pass was damaged in a vehicle collision the previous morning, and had been marked off with safety cones. 

"Early on the morning of Jan. 14, three additional crashes, attributed to icy road conditions, occurred, with the last crash taking place about 7:35 a.m.," the report states. "In two of these crashes, an eastbound vehicle went out of control, crossed the center median, and traveled through the area of the previously damaged guardrail—possibly displacing it partially into the left traffic lane. A witness in a vehicle traveling forward of the bus reported that moments before the bus reached the overpass the guardrail wreckage was about 2 feet into the travel lane.

"As the bus, which was in the left lane of travel, approached the section of guardrail laying in the roadway, it was following behind a tractor-semitrailer combination while passing a slower moving tractor-semitrailer combination vehicle," the report continues. "The bus struck the guardrail, veered to the left, and overrode the guardrail wreckage in the median. The bus traveled about 22 feet across the earthen median into an opening between the eastbound and westbound traffic lanes of I-20. The bus encountered a 21-foot embankment and became airborne. The bus struck the base of the embankment and continued forward toward the railroad tracks, where it impacted the 54th rail car and side of a piggy-back trailer of the UP train."

According to the report, the freight train was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad and was pulling 58 cars with four locomotives from Los Angeles, Calif. to Marion, Ark. The train was traveling at 45 mph at the time of collision, which is below the maximum authorized speed for that area.

As a result of the crash, eight inmates and two officers were killed. The remaining four inmates and one officer were seriously injured, and have remained in hospitals and/or treatment centers since the crash. The inmates were initially treated in Odessa but have since been relocated to secure medical facilities and prison hospitals. Officer Jason Self  was released from the University Medical Center in Lubbock this week and was moved to a rehabilitation facility in Abilene to begin the next phase of the recuperation and healing process.