Four Dead In Biloxi Crash Involving Bastrop Senior Center Bus Chartered From Texas [UPDATES]

AUSTIN, TX — Four people were reported to have died after a charter bus carrying members of the Bastrop Senior Center just outside of Austin crashed into a freight train in Mississippi on Tuesday, according to news reports.

The Sun Herald newspaper reports that the bus carrying nearly 50 people collided with a CSX train in Biloxi, Miss., at around 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Four people are confirmed dead and some three dozen others injured in the aftermath of the wreckage, the local chief of police, John Miller, told reporters at a press conference.

A fourth victim died at an Biloxi-area hospital after succumbing to her injuries at around 6:30 p.m. According to reports, the fatalities include two men and two women. In a subsequent press conference attended by Bastrop Senior Center representatives and law enforcement officers, official declined to identify the dead or injured.

Late Tuesday night, however, the Austin American-Statesman reported that two former Lockhart school district administrators, Ken and Peggy Hoffman, were among the dead. The newspaper cited an email to district staff and the Lockhart Post-Register in identifying the pair. Peggy Hoffman was previously an assistant principal at Lockhart High Schook, the Post-Register reported.

“We feel their loss deeply across the district, remembering the mark that they made upon us and upon a generation of children in our community,” the district said in the email referenced by the Statesman.

Officials at the Bastrop Senior Center confirmed to Austin-area news outlets that 49 of their members were aboard the charter bus at the time of the crash. Patch called the center located at 1008 Water St. for comment, but the person picking up the phone muttered something unintelligibly before hanging up the phone. Subsequent attempts yielded a busy signal.

Charter buses carrying retirees visiting Biloxi's eight gambling casinos are common sights in the city, but it's unclear whether the Bastrop-originating bus was on such an outing. The city is located about 550 miles from Bastrop.

The Associated Press reported the bus is owned by Austin-based Echo Transportation. According to city spokesman Vincent Creel, emergency responders were still removing injured people from the bus more than 30 minutes after the crash, pulling many of the victims through windows, the AP reported.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease released the following statement:

CSX personnel are working with first responders at a collision of a freight train and passenger bus in Biloxi, Miss. The collision this afternoon occurred at the Main Street crossing. The eastbound mixed freight train, traveling from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., had three locomotives and 52 cars – 27 loaded cars and 25 empty cars. The crossing has flashing lights and crossing gates. Authorities in Biloxi report three fatalities and many injuries, and our thoughts are with all involved. The train crew was not injured. CSX is cooperating fully with investigators.

According to emergency workers, several of the crash victims were trapped within the mangled wreckage, including two who had to be extricated by first responders. The charter bus was traveling north on Main Street when it collided with the train headed east.

The force of the impact from the train was powerful enough to drag the charter bus some 300 feet along the tracks, emergency officials said.

National Transportation Safety Board officials were dispatched to the scene to investigate. The Sun Herald posted a video of Miller's press conference to its Facebook page, as well as a sidebar to the tragedy detailing the dangerous traffic history of the site where the bus was hit.

Bastrop, a city in of just over 5,000 people, is located 30 miles southeast of Austin and is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. On their website, Bastrop Senior Center officials describe their facility as "...a place for senior citizens 50 and over to join other mature adults in a variety of fun, recreational, healthful and educational activities."

Its members takes part in a variety of regularly scheduled activities, officials wrote, including "group travel to America's fun, scenic and historical destinations."

In the virtual newsletter for March, Bastrop Senior Center officials alerted members a bus trip to Biloxi and New Orleans scheduled March 5-11 was fully booked, and itineraries were already mailed out to participants. The same dispatch alerted of space availability still left for an eight-day tour to Costa Rica scheduled March 21 and an Alaskan cruise scheduled from mid-May to early June.

A subsequent road trip is scheduled from Sept. 9-17 to Colorado, with stops planned at Garden of the Gods, the Royal Gorge and Colorado Springs, according to the newsletter. The cost of the trip was priced at $755 per person, based on double occupancy.

While most hearing of the crash view it simply as the horrific tragedy that it is, others see a potential payday or a genuine offer to provide victims with legal representation — depending on one's outlook in categorizing the tactic. As emergency crews were still sifting through the wreckage, law enforcement officials still investigating the scene, medics tending to victims and family members scrambling to reach injured loved ones, an Austin law firm produced a YouTube-uploaded video soliciting business from crash victims and their families.

"Did you lose a parent or loved one?" floating text in the Doan Law Firm video asks, the words superimposed over crash site images with a somber piano accompaniment as musical track. "Were you injured? You have rights. We can help," officials at the law firm at 100 S. Congress Ave., self-described as "Texas Bus Accident Lawyers" convey, complete with phone number and promises of a free evaluation: "No fees, unless we win."

The video can't be shared through an embed code, and its comments section has been disabled. Click here to view it. It was uploaded by Jimmy Doan, presumably a name partner in the firm.

Editor's note: A fourth victim succumbed to her injuries late Tuesday afternoon at around 6:30, more than four hours after the crash.