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A weekend of travel tragedies

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Indiana bus crash

Three people were killed and 19 injured when a bus carrying about 40 passengers to an Indianapolis churc
Indiana bus crash Three people were killed and 19 injured when a bus carrying about 40 passengers to an Indianapolis church overturned Saturday afternoon. Credit: WXIN

Sad news all around: The weekend brought one tragic story after another about people dying in travel accidents.

Homicide charges after train derails in Spain

The driver of the train that careened around a curve and derailed in northwestern Spain last week now faces homicide charges.

Authorities charged him Sunday with 79 counts of homicide — one for each life lost.

Over the weekend, relatives of victims embarked on the grim but necessary task of picking up the luggage left behind.

A solemn parade of mourners wheeled bags away from the police station in Santiago de Compostela. The suitcases had been recovered from the wreckage scene, their owners either dead or badly injured.

Somber organ music filled the city’s cathedral Monday night at a memorial for the passengers who perished.

On church trip, bus flips in Indiana

A youth pastor, his pregnant wife and a chaperone were killed on a church trip when their bus flipped over in Indiana on Saturday.

The driver told witnesses that the vehicle’s brakes failed as he was trying to make a left turn, an Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman said.

The bus ended up on its side on a concrete road barrier, with luggage and other debris strewn on the roadway.

“I saw bodies everywhere, kids in shock and disbelief,” said John Murphy, who had stopped along the northern Indianapolis road where the bus crashed.

The bus was returning from a camp in Michigan, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said.

Bus packed with pilgrims plunges off bridge in Italy

A bus returning pilgrims from a weekend visit to a Catholic shrine in southern Italy plunged off a bridge into a wooded area, leaving at least 38 dead.

The bus was traveling east of Naples in Avellino province, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Avellino police official Pasquale Picone said the bus struck 11 cars on the road before falling off the bridge, leading police to suspect the bus had brake problems. But the exact cause of the accident remains unknown.

Photos from the scene showed a broken guardrail and the bus lying on its side.

New York boat crash kills bride, best man

In New York, wedding plans turned to funeral arrangements after a power boat carrying a wedding party crashed into a barge on the Hudson River late Friday. Two people died.

Lindsey Stewart, the bride-to-be, and Mark Lennon, who was to have been the best man in the wedding party, and disappeared late Friday when a 21-foot Stingray power boat they were passengers on slammed into one of three construction barges strapped together near the Tappan Zee Bridge, 25 miles north of Manhattan.

New York authorities are trying to piece together what went wrong.

“We’re looking into every single thing,” Rockland County, New York, Sheriff Louis Falco said. “What we’re going to do is bring in an accident reconstruction team.”

Pennsylvania helicopter crash kills 5

A day after a helicopter went missing during bad weather, search crews spotted the wreckage Sunday in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.

Five people, including a child, died in the crash, the county’s coroner said.

The Robinson 66 chopper departed from Tri-Cities Airport in Endicott, New York, and was headed to Jake Arner Memorial Airport in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. Federal officials said earlier it had come from Greater Binghamton Airport.

Federal authorities are investigating.

Switzerland: Commuter trains collide

Two commuter trains collided head-on in western Switzerland Monday evening, between the cities of Moudon and Payerne.

Dozens were injured, several of them seriously, Swiss Railways spokesman Reto Schaerli said.

“We don’t know why this crash happened,” he said.

Floodwater sweeps tour bus downstream in Arizona

The driver of a tour bus loaded with passengers attempted to cross through floodwater that was at least 6 feet deep and 100 feet wide in northern Arizona on Sunday,

When fire department crews arrived, the bus had rolled onto its side and floated 300 yards downstream.

No one was injured or killed, but authorities didn’t mince words when they described the situation Sunday.

“The occupants were extremely lucky to have survived,” Northern Arizona Consolidated Fire District Chief Patrick Moore said.

“When you think of how much water it takes to float a bus 300 yards,” he said, “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know you shouldn’t drive there.”

CNN’s Holly Yan, Karl Penhaul, Barbie Nadeau, Livia Borghese, Janet DiGiacomo, Ed Payne, Alina Cho, Greg Botelho, Mark Morgenstein, Sho Wills, Dave Alsup and Stefan Simons contributed to this report.

Steve Almasy and Catherine E. Shoichet | CNN

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