HOUSTON -- A blown tire may be the cause of a charter bus crash in north Texas that killed 14 and injured more than 40 parishioners from Houston-area Vietnamese churches, police told KPRC Local 2.

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Fifty-five people were on board the bus from Houston to Carthage, Mo., when the bus ran off U.S. 75 north of F.M. 1417 in Sherman, Texas, at about 12:45 a.m. Friday. Sherman is about an hour north of Dallas.

The passengers were from Vietnamese Catholic Martyr Church in southeast Houston and Our Lady of Lavang Church in northwest Harris County. They were headed to Marian Days, a festival and pilgrimage that is held in conjunction with the Feast of Assumption on Aug. 15.

The Feast of Assumption is the day of devotion that Catholics recognize as the day the Virgin Mary ascended into heaven.

Sherman police said the bus went off a bridge and flipped into a creek.

The bus came to a rest on its right side in the northbound lane of an access road. Workers righted the bus early Friday -- revealing a crumpled right side -- and loaded it onto a large flatbed truck. Other workers cleaned debris and gathered luggage, shopping bags and scattered pieces of clothing.

"We know the one contributing factor would be that it appears that a right tire on the tour bus had a blowout," Lt. Steve Ayers said. "That certainly contributed to the accident."

The road was dry at the time of the crash, Ayers said.

Fourteen people died from their injuries. Hospital authorities said 12 people died at the scene, one died at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and another died Friday afternoon at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

Their names have not been released. The pastor of Our Lady of Lavang Church said three of his parishioners were killed.

Rescue workers said some people were thrown out of the bus and others were trapped inside.

Everyone who survived was injured. More than a dozen victims were reported in critical condition. Ten people were taken to the hospital by helicopter.

"The injuries I saw were primarily crushing wounds, trauma as you would expect in a situation like this," Sherman Fire Chief Jeff Jones said. "I'll tell you there were very few walking-wounded."

Passenger Leha Nguyen, 45, said she thought the bus was speeding as it passed through Dallas just before midnight. People began dozing off, but then she heard a noise and screaming, and she opened her eyes.

"I see ... somebody was laying on my legs. A lady next to me, she had her arm crushed up. The lady who was on my left ... a man was on top of her," she said at a news conference at a Sherman hospital where she had been treated.

She said nobody was wearing seatbelts. She said people were strewn all over, some were not moving and a television had fallen on one person.

"I think I'm the luckiest one out of most people," Leha Nguyen said.

Ayers said the investigation would be very time-intensive because of the number of passengers and fatalities.

"We do feel fortunate that the bus was traveling northbound where the guardrail is and the overpass over the ravine there," he said. "Had it been 100 feet prior to that, it could have been in a deeper ravine. It certainly appears that it could have been much worse."

Police said they had trouble communicating with the passengers because of a language barrier. Dallas police officers who speak Vietnamese have been helping translate.

The bus was operated by Iguala BusMex Incorporated of Houston, according to licensing information on the vehicle. Records show that the company has an application pending with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration but has not been approved for operation.

The company sought certification from the agency June 26, just weeks after it filed incorporation papers with the Texas Secretary of State.

The company's owner and address is the same as another bus company, Angel Tours Inc. in southeast Houston that was forced by the FMCSA to take its vehicles out of interstate service June 23 as a result of an unsatisfactory compliance review in May.

The driver survived the crash and is talking to investigators.

An Angel Tours employee declined to comment on the wreck Friday and closed the building.

The Red Cross set up a hot line for family members seeking information about their loved ones. Anyone trying to get information about a passenger's condition may call 866-438-4636.

St. Patrick Catholic Church on North Rusk Avenue in Denison, Texas, will host relatives of the crash victims. Relatives of the victims can go to that church to pray and get meals.

Church Members Pray, Search For Answers

Parishioners at Vietnamese Martyr Catholic Church held a somber Mass Friday morning.

Many spent the morning on the telephone, trying to find out if their friends and relatives had survived the bus crash.

The Rev. Joseph Vu, a priest at the Vietnamese Martyrs Church and vicar for the 30,000 to 35,000 Vietnamese Catholics in the region, was not on the trip but arrived at a relief station set up for victims' families at a church in nearby Denison.

"I'm going to tell people we don't blame anybody," he said. "This happened like Katrina, like Challenger. What we can do is pray." He added: "God will comfort them. Tell people to keep trusting in God. Do not blame anybody. Do not ask why. Now we just help each other to get through this."

Mary Nguyen said one of her friends, a mother of five, was killed in the crash. She said she talked to her friend briefly before the bus left at 8 p.m. Thursday.

"I cannot believe it," Nguyen said. "She's really nice, very kind, believes in God and do all the volunteer for the church."

"Almost every year for the last 10 years, we have a bus from our church leave here," one parishioner said. "One bus leaving Wednesday night and one bus leaving Thursday night. This is the first time having a big accident happen here. In the past, we go up there and it's OK, no problem. This time it's a sad story."

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People clutched their rosaries and prayed for the victims.

"I've actually been on one of the buses there," parishioner Hi Le said. "It's usually the best way to go. The bus is really not that bad of a ride. I don't know what happened to that one."

Le, a college student who has attended the church since he was a child, said nothing like this has ever happened to the congregation.

"This is definitely the biggest thing that's ever happened to this church," said a parishioner of Vietnamese Catholic Martyr Church.

To assist families in coping with the bus accident, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is providing 24-hour crisis counseling. Families seeking counseling services may call 866-649-5862.