2 Players dead and 7 Others are Hospitalized


Associated Press
PARIS, Texas -- Two Navarro College basketball players are dead and seven
others, including a coach, are hospitalized early Tuesday after a team van
was hit broadside by a tractor-trailer rig while returning from a game in
northeast Texas.
Police said a preliminary investigation showed that the drivers of two team
vans had missed their turns in the journey back to the Corsicana college and
were attempting to backtrack when the wreck occurred.
The dead were identified as players Pah Sarr, 21, of Gambia, Africa; and
18-year-old Jason Rashard Trier of Giddings, Texas, Paris Police Department
spokesman Todd Varner told The Associated Press.
One person was critically injured in the wreck late Monday night on U.S.
271. Two of the injured were transferred to Dallas hospitals for treatment
of trauma.
Players were returning in two vans to Corsicana from Paris, where the team
had played Paris Junior College earlier in the evening. The first van had
made a U-turn on U.S. 271 just inside the city limits and the driver of the
second was turning to follow when it was struck by the eastbound rig, said
Paris Police Department spokesman Todd Varner.
"The second van made a U-turn in front of the 18-wheeler and was hit
broadside," he said.
Justice of the Peace Ernie Sparks pronounced one player dead at the scene
after the 9:50 p.m. accident and another at Paris Regional Medical Center at
11:50 p.m.
Sparks said the van, designed to carry 15 passengers, was "busted to
pieces."
"The ones who were in there, I don't know how they survived, but they
crawled out," Sparks said. "All the windows were gone. It was lying on its
side with the top side up."
One of the dead was believed to be a freshman.
"It's pretty bad," Navarro Athletic Director Roark Montgomery told the
Corsicana Daily Sun in Tuesday's online edition. "A manager on the first bus
called [football coach] Chuck Lawrence about 10 [p.m.] and said the van
behind them had been hit by a semi."
Varner said that police investigators had not yet been able to interview all
the vans' drivers and passengers, but a preliminary investigation showed
that the vehicles had missed a turn on the two-lane highway.
"The second van made a U-turn to follow the first van," he said. "But that
driver failed to yield to the truck and made an unsafe turn."
He identified the second van's driver as Bilal Batley, a 21-year-old
graduate assistant coach. Coach Lewis Orr and two players were hospitalized
in serious condition and two other players are in fair condition at Paris
Regional Medical Center, said Derald Bulls, a marketing director.
Varner said Orr was initially identified as the wrecked van's driver but
later interviews showed that Batley was at the wheel. He said the U-turn in
combination with failure to yield to oncoming traffic is a potential
vehicular offense and the case may be reviewed by the county attorney's
office.
Chris Gonzales, a freshman from Chicago, was airlifted to Parkland Memorial
Hospital in Dallas, where he was listed in critical condition. Elijah
Coppock, a sophomore from Columbus, Ga., was flown to Baylor University
Medical Center in Dallas, where he was admitted in serious condition.
Police Chief Karl Louis said people in the van that was not involved in the
wreck were taken to the Paris Junior College student center where they could
contact relatives.
Paris is about 120 miles northeast of Corsicana and 90 miles northeast of
Dallas.

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