Today is a sad day for the folks in Jefferson County, Tennessee, as a terrible accident involving a tractor trailer, a bus, and a passenger vehicle have left 8 people dead and 14 injured. The accident between these vehicles happened at mile marker 423 along the Tennessee stretch of the I-40 interstate. (Source: Examiner.com).

According to WBIR (the NBC affiliate in Knoxville, TN) and the THP (Tennessee Highway Patrol), the crash happened at 2 p.m. on October 2nd when the left front tire of the church bus blew out, causing the driver to lose control of the bus and crash into a tractor trailer and an SUV on the other side of the interstate’s median. This caused the tractor trailer to catch fire, and the church bus overturned.

The Director of Jefferson County’s EMA, Brad Phillips told WBIR that “the local rescue squad extricated several passengers from the bus, which was very close to the burning tractor-trailer.” However, Phillips could not provide the number of how many people needed to be rescued, but he did state that most of the rescued patrons were out within 15 minutes of the squad’s arrival.

Unfortunately, this crash resulted in fatalities. According to Examiner.com, six passengers from the church bus were killed, along with one from the tractor trailer, and the other one in the SUV, resulting in eight fatalities. The other 14 people involved in this crash encountered non-life-threatening injuries and were airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

WBIR states that the names of the victims have not been released yet and that the fatalities will be taken to the University of Tennessee’s forensic center to be identified at a later time. The church bus was from Front Street Baptist Church in Statesville, North Carolina.

Various users of the Twitterverse reach out and mourn the victims with the families involved in this horrific accident.

Send prayers up for the people affected by the crash on I-40 today

— Todd Kelly Jr. (TK) (@ToddKellyJr6) October 2, 2013

Prayers go out to the friends and family of the 12 people killed in the bus wreck on I-40 earlier. #sosad #GodBless

— Bailey Shelton (@baileyshelton_3) October 2, 2013

[Image source: WBIR]