OPELOUSAS, La. - One Hurricane Katrina refugee died and many others were injured Friday when a bus carrying 45 to 50 people from the Superdome swerved across a highway median and overturned. The accident happened when the driver lost control of the bus, but it wasn’t immediately known why that happened, Trooper Willie Williams, a spokesman for the state police, told The Associated Press. “Everyone on that bus was transported to a hospital,” Williams said. One man was dead; Williams did not know his age or other details. “We have multiple critical injuries and multiple serious injuries and some minor injuries,” he said. The exact nature of the injuries was not immediately known. The bus was heading north when it overturned around 3:30 p.m. on Interstate 49 about 130 miles west of New Orleans. Williams said it swerved across the median and southbound lanes, where it rolled onto its right side and slid onto the exit ramp to Creswell Lane, the main street in Opelousas. Survivors told The Daily World of Opelousas that the bus had left the Superdome. They did not know where they were going — one said Houston, another Dallas, a third Shreveport, La. The bus was the last of five charter buses in a convoy from New Orleans. The others continued without incident, Williams said.
