Saturday, October 9, 2004: At least 15 friends and family members of Roosevelt Walters, a South Side Chicago resident, were killed at about 5 AM this morning, when the tour bus they were traveling in suddenly sped off a dark Arkansas interstate, flew through the air, crashed into a ditch and flipped over onto its roof.

The tour bus, owned by Mr. Walters, was being driven by his brother, Herbert Walter, who instantly died in the crash. There were a total of thirty other people on the bus, including Mr. Walters' stepson, his sister-in-law, a cousin, some of his neighbors and his wife Mareen, who had organized the vacation for a group of friends, mostly retirees and teachers.

Walters said he had inspected the bus on Friday and it was in good mechanical shape. The bus left from his South Side home last night, on its way to a vacation in Tunica, Mississippi. It was due to return to Chicago on Monday night. The same bus made the same trip at least twice a year, and there was no cause for alarm.

Tire tracks in the grass, where Interstate 55 makes a left turn into Memphis, were found this morning, suggesting that the bus steered straight as the road turned. The bus left the highway, flipped over as it hit a ditch, then it rolled about 100 yards before it finally stopped, smashed to pieces with half of its passengers dead.

Some of the dead were unrecognizable, crushed beneath the vehicle, found only after wrecker crews arrived to pull the bus upright. To reach the mangled remains of other victims, emergency workers had to shear off the roof of the bus. They tossed it aside and the roof lay nearby, while rescuers searched for victims among the scattered debris: popped-open suitcases, clothes, pillows, cameras, blankets, cups, canvas bags, headphones, and sandwiches wrapped in plastic baggies, among the broken glass and twisted metal.

All of the 16 survivors were also badly injured. Eight of the injured were taken to Crittenden Memorial Hospital in West Memphis, where one of them has already reportedly died. Survivors told police the trip was uneventful, then "the next thing we knew, we were off the road."

A light mist was falling at the time of the crash, but visibility did not appear to be significantly limited.

"The helicopters kept coming over my house, and I knew it would be something tragic," said Fredonia Gay, who lives three miles from the crash site. "They kept coming and coming."

At this point, the fate of Roosevelt Walters' wife is still unknown. Other passengers on the bus whose fate is yet unknown included John Hawkins, Betty Lou Jamison, and Maxie Lyons.

Walters' bus was the only vehicle involved in the unexplained accident.