7 Killed as Church Camp Bus Is Hit on N.M. Highway

MAYHILL, N.M. — A camper being towed by a pickup truck broke loose Sunday and hit a bus and rammed into another pickup, killing six girls traveling home by bus from a church retreat and the driver of the second pickup, state police said.

When the pickup swerved, the camper broke loose and its fifth wheel, a device that mounts it to the pickup’s bed, broke free and “tore along the side of bus,” state police Capt. John Balderston said. It also struck the second pickup, which was behind the bus.

The girls, ages 12 to 17, were killed instantly, Balderston said. There was no information available about the driver who was killed.

Twenty-seven people were injured in the crash, with three in critical condition, five in serious condition and 19 in stable condition at hospitals in Alamogordo and Albuquerque, a camp official said.

Members of the Green Lawn church group gathered after the accident at Cuba Avenue Church of Christ in Alamogordo. They were to take a bus to another church in Artesia and home from there, church elder Jim Morrow said.