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LAPLACE, La. (AP) — The Latest on bus-fire truck wreck near New Orleans (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
Louisiana State Police say a 21-year-old Mississippi man was killed and three other Mississippi residents were seriously injured when a bus hit a fire truck and three other vehicles.
Trooper Melissa Matey says Jermaine Starr of Moss Point was killed when the bus rear-ended the Toyota Camry in which he was a rear-seat passenger. Another passenger was critically injured, and the driver and third passenger were seriously injured. All are also from Moss Point.
Matey says the bus also hit three St. John the Baptist Parish firefighters, killing one and leaving a second in critical condition.
She says the bus driver is a 37-year-old Honduran man who had entered the United States illegally. She says sheriff's deputies will arrest Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez on charges including two counts of negligent homicide.
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2:40 p.m.
Louisiana State Police say a Honduran man who had entered the United States illegally was driving a bus that hit a firetruck on an elevated highway, killing two people and injuring dozens.
Trooper Melissa Matey says the driver also did not have a commercial license. She says the bus was carrying flood recovery workers from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
Matey says the dead include a local fire chief and a rear-seat occupant of a car also hit by the bus. She says the injured include the dozens of people on the bus, occupants of three other vehicles, and two firefighters. Most injuries were minor to moderate, but Matey says one firefighter is critically injured.
Matey says troopers are investigating whether the bus driver was employed by the owners, or was working for himself or someone who rented the bus.
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1:55 p.m.
Louisiana State Police say an out-of-control bus carrying flood recovery workers hit a fire truck and firefighters who had responded to an earlier wreck, killing two people and injuring dozens.
Trooper Melissa Matey told local news outlets that the bus driver did not have a commercial license and was not authorized to drive a bus.
Matey says those killed Sunday morning include a local fire chief. She says Chief Spencer Chauvin (SHOH-vanh) was among three firefighters thrown off the raised section of Interstate 10 near LaPlace and into water below.
She says the 30 to 40 people on the bus suffered minor to moderate injuries.
Matey describes them as people heading from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to help with flood recovery.
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This item has been corrected to show that the bus was carrying flood recovery workers, not volunteers.
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