Dozens Injured in Illinois Highway Bus Crash

MARION, Ill. (AP) -- A tour bus taking people home to Mississippi from a charity event ran off a highway and overturned, injuring dozens of passengers, authorities said.

The bus was en route from Chicago to Holly Springs, Miss., with 42 people on board when it ran off the pavement of Interstate 57 and overturned late Sunday, said Jamie Moak, a State Police dispatcher.

Authorities said the bus passengers were residents of Tennessee and Mississippi who were returning home after participating in a prostate cancer fund-raiser in Chicago organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

A similar accident involving a Chicago-based charter bus killed 14 people and injured 16 others on Oct. 9. That bus overturned on Interstate 55 in northeastern Arkansas. It had been en route to the casinos of Tunica, Miss.

Moak said troopers had not released the name of the owner of the bus involved in Sunday's accident.

An accident reconstruction team had been sent to the scene, she said.

Authorities said 24 people were taken to Heartland Regional Medical Center, where an attendant who refused to give her said most appeared to be in stable condition.

Eleven people were being treated at Herrin Hospital, mostly for minor injuries, nursing supervisor Martha McDonald said.

State police said two others were taken to Memorial Hospital in Carbondale, where a nursing supervisor refused to release information, citing privacy laws.