Tasmanian bus crash kills cancer patients

A minibus carrying cancer patients collided with a runaway trailer on the Australian island state of Tasmania, killing at least three people, police said. The bus was carrying 10 cancer patients from a treatment center back to the town of Burnie, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday. "As far as scenes go, it's a fairly bad one," Acting Police Inspector Craig Fox said. He said the Cancer Council bus collided with a dual-axle trailer that separated from a waste disposal truck near Elizabeth Town. A half-dozen ambulances were sent to the scene and the highway where the accident occurred was closed for some time. Eight of the passengers on the bus were hospitalized with serious injuries and one of the injured died in surgery, Fox said.