Five people were killed and more than 20 injured in a bus crash Sunday in northeast Oregon, officials said.
Oregon State Police said the charter bus -- whose company, destination and point of origin have not been identified -- was carrying about 40 passengers west on Interstate 84 when the driver lost control in the ice and snow sometime before 10:30 a.m.
The bus crashed through a guardrail and tumbled several hundred feet down an embankment.
The tough terrain in the area, near a place known as Immigrant Hill, hampered the rescue. Emergency workers had to form rope teams to recover survivors, officials said.
Police said the five killed were declared dead at the scene, and many of the injured were taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton.
Larry Blanc, spokesman for the hospital, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday afternoon that the hospital had 18 injured passengers and that four or five others had been taken to other hospitals.
Surgeries were underway, and no one had been declared dead at the hospital, Blanc said. He did not know the survivors' conditions.
“I’ve seen some that have been standing and walking into the triage area" at the hospital, Blanc said.
He said the hospital initiated a "disaster code" after it received word of the crash about a dozen miles away.
The crash was the second to occur Sunday morning on Interstate 84 in northeast Oregon. State police said a 69-year-old man died when the Ford F-350 pickup he was riding in hit an icy stretch of road and rolled over two and a half times.
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Five dead, more than 20 injured in icy Oregon bus crash
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Five dead, more than 20 injured in icy Oregon bus crash
