DALLAS — Hundreds gathered at a Texas church to sing, pray, and mourn for the five people killed in a bus crash on their way to a Louisiana church camp.
The bus carrying more than 40 children and adult chaperons swerved and slammed into a concrete pillar off I-20 on Monday, killing four teens and the driver and injuring at least 36.
"I don't like what God did, but I'm not going to argue with him. I guess he was watching out for me," said 15-year-old survivor Marshall Thomason.
Metro Church officials planned to have counselors available on Tuesday. At Louisiana Tech, where the bus was headed, victims were remembered as the camp got under way.
"The whole week is going to be a time of grieving, but I think we're holding on well right now," said Bob Mulima, Metro Church's associate pastor of evangelism.
Authorities were investigating what caused the bus to veer off the highway and smash into the pillar. Because there were no skid marks, officials were investigating the possibility that the driver fell asleep.
An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday for the driver, 51-year-old Ernest Sheldon Carter of Dallas, who had a criminal record for theft and escaping custody, Dallas County court records show.
A woman identifying herself as Carter's common-law wife told Dallas television station WFAA that Carter had recently undergone a medical checkup because of headaches and pain in his arm.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said the teens killed in the crash east of Terrell, about 30 miles east of Dallas, were Michelle Chaney, 14, of Garland; Michael Freeman, 12, of Wylie; Lindsay Kimmons, 16, of Rowlett; and Amanda Maxwell, 13, of Plano.
Chaney was looking forward to her freshman year at Garland High School and the chance to sing in the school choir.
"I hugged her two times and told her to have a good time," Chaney's father, Benny, said. "She was the only daughter I had."
Freeman, the oldest of four children, loved to read but "didn't wear his intelligence on his sleeve," said his uncle Robert Mabry.
Kimmons, a high school junior, was a flutist who received superior ratings in the University Interscholastic League solo and ensemble competition.
And Maxwell, who excelled in cheerleading, drama and academics, attended church without fail, morning and night on Sundays and Wednesdays. She taught Bible study and loved swimming so much her sisters called her "a little mermaid."
"If there was anybody that was ready to go, it was Amanda," her grandmother, Earlene Henry, was quoted saying in Tuesday's Dallas Morning News. "She had her spiritual life together. She was quite a gal. She had a lot of potential."