A bus carrying senior citizens to a North Carolina church overturned Wednesday in Jefferson County, Tenn., killing at least eight people and injuring at least 12 others, eight of them critically, authorities told NBC News.
The state Highway Patrol said the left front tire of the bus, which was carrying 18 people, blew out as it was traveling east on I-40 east of Knoxville. The bus crossed the median and struck a tractor-trailer and a sport-utility vehicle carrying three people, overturning the bus and the setting the tractor-trailer on fire, the patrol said.
Six people were killed on the bus and one each was killed in the two other vehicles,the Highway Patrol said.
The University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville told NBC News that it was treating 12 patients, eight of them in critical condition and two of them in serious condition. It described all of the patients as elderly.
Two more patients were on the way, it said.
