A horrific collision between a Greyhound bus and a semi-truck on an interstate in New Mexico killed at least seven passengers and sent dozens of others to area hospitals, authorities reported Thursday.  Preliminary information indicated the semi was headed east when it blew a tire, sending the rig across the median and into oncoming traffic where it smashed into the bus, New Mexico State Police said.   Television footage of the crash site on Interstate 40 near the Arizona border showed the front of the bus had crumpled after impact. The truck was on its side with debris scattered over the highway and a nearby median.  The driver of the semi-truck sustained non-life-threatening injuries, state police said.  Passing motorists described a chaotic scene with passengers on the ground and people screaming.

Eric Huff was heading to the Grand Canyon with his girlfriend when they came across the crash.  Huff said the semi’s trailer was upside down and “shredded to pieces,” and the front of the Greyhound bus was smashed, with many of the seats pressed together. Part of the side of the bus was torn off, he said.  “It was an awe-inspiring terrible scene,” he said  Truck driver Santos Soto III shot video showing the front of the Greyhound sheared off and the semi split open, with its contents strewn across the highway.  First responders work the scene of a collision between a Greyhound passenger bus and a semi-truck on Interstate 40 near the town of Thoreau, N.M., near the Arizona border on Aug. 30, 2018. Multiple people were killed and others were seriously injured. Officers and rescue workers were on scene but did not provide details about how many people were killed or injured, or what caused the crash.   He saw people sobbing on the side of the road as bystanders tried to comfort them.  “I was really traumatized myself, because I’ve been driving about two years and I had never seen anything like that before,” Soto said.   “I’m a pretty strong person and I broke down and cried for at least 30 minutes,” he added.

Greyhound said the bus, which originated in St. Louis on Wednesday, had stopped in Albuquerque and was en route to Phoenix with 47 passengers.  “We are fully cooperating with local authorities and will also complete an investigation of our own,” Greyhound spokeswoman Crystal Booker said in a statement.  The crash occurred near the town of Thoreau. It forced the closure of the westbound lanes of the interstate and traffic was backing up as travelers were diverted.  “It was chaos,” said Officer Ray Wilson, a New Mexico State Police spokesman, in a media briefing. “The officers did a great job of sifting through the wreckage and the rubble to get survivors out of the bus…”