ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) -- Driver fatigue may have been a factor in the crash of a sport utility vehicle that killed four Venezuelan firefighters and critically injured a fifth, investigators say.
The firefighters, who were in Texas for a training course, struck the rear of a semi truck on the shoulder of Interstate 10 early Sunday.
Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Dana Cothren said the driver of the westbound Explorer drifted onto the shoulder just after 6:30 a.m., striking the parked truck. Cothren said the impact pushed the truck, which did not have a trailer, off the shoulder.
Two women and two men, including the SUV's driver, died at the scene. A fifth person was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and remained in critical condition early Monday. The truck driver was not seriously injured.
The victims, whose names were not immediately released pending notification of relatives, were traveling as part of a three-vehicle caravan to College Station to attend a training academy at the Brayton fire schools, according to the Bryan-College Station Eagle's online edition Monday.
State troopers were trying to determine what caused the SUV to leave the road and strike the truck, whose driver had pulled off to contact his company.
``He failed to drive in his lane and struck the back end'' Cothren told the Houston Chronicle in Monday's editions. ``Why he did that _ we don't know. Was he trying to avoid somebody in front of him? We don't know.''
Ten other Venezuelan firefighters in the convoy went to the hospital to be with the injured firefighter.
The Chronicle reported the firefighters arrived in Miami on Thursday and were driving to College Station when the crash occurred. They were to attend a Spanish-language training course at Texas A&M University.
``The participants, instructors and staff of the Spanish school are deeply saddened by the loss of our comrades in the firefighting profession,'' Les Bunte, emergency training director, said in a statement.
A memorial service is planned for Wednesday, training academy spokesman Jason Cook said.
Anahuac is about 40 miles east of Houston.
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