Police: Truck driver says distracted before crash

DAVIS, Okla. (AP) – Authorities say the driver of a tractor-trailer that collided with a bus killing four members of a Texas community college softball team told them he had been distracted by something in his cabin before the accident.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Captain Ronnie Hampton said Sunday that the truck driver, 53-year-old Russell Staley of Saginaw, Texas told investigators he was distracted before crossing the median on Interstate 35 near Davis, Oklahoma Friday night.

Hampton declined to say what the distraction was. Hampton said that investigators do not necessarily agree with Staley’s explanation.

Hampton said investigators had obtained search warrants to collect evidence from both the truck and the bus carrying 15 members of North Central Texas College women’s softball team and their coach. Besides the deaths, a dozen people were injured.