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A third-grade boy was killed and at least 45 other people, most of them children, were reported injured when a bus carrying a youth football team from a championship game crashed in Arkansas early Monday, police said.
The crash was reported at 2:40 a.m. Monday (3:40 a.m. ET) after the charter bus left the roadway and overturned west of the city of Benton along Interstate 30, Arkansas State Police said.
The bus was traveling from the game in Dallas to Memphis, Tennessee, authorities said.
Aspire Public Schools, a national charter school company affiliated with the Shelby County Public Schools, identified the boy who was killed as Kameron Johnson. It gave no age for Kameron, but it said he was a third-grader at Aspire Coleman Elementary School in Memphis.
At least 45 other people were injured when the charter bus tumbled down the embankment. Bobby White, a spokesman for the Achievement School District in Memphis, said students from five of the district's schools were on the bus.
The driver survived and said in an initial statement that she lost control, causing the bus to roll off the interstate, police said. The bus was owned by Scott Shuttle Service of Tennessee.
Arkansas Children's Hospital received 26 patients, 22 of whom had been released by late Monday afternoon, officials said. Its patients suffered a variety of injuries, including skull fractures, arm fractures and liver and spleen lacerations.
"But all of them, I really do anticipate, are going to have a full recovery," said Dr. Todd Maxson, the hospital's chief of trauma medicine.
Three other hospitals also received patients, officials said.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland tweeted Monday morning, "On behalf of all Memphians, our hearts and prayers go out to the Orange Mound children and their families involved in this morning’s tragic bus accident in Arkansas."
Orange Mound is a historically black neighborhood in southeast Memphis. The community comes together around its youth football teams, where kids train to be part of the highly competitive Melrose High School squad, according to The Associated Press.
"This team represented our city in a championship game & then experienced this horror heading home," Tami Sawyer, a member of the Shelby County Commission, said on Twitter. "My deepest sympathies & prayers are with each child & family. My love to Orange Mound, one of our city’s major heartbeats."