The corps' 100 musicians had been traveling from Wyoming to Indiana on their national summer tour in a caravan of three buses.

Investigators believe the accident happened after one of the motor coaches blew a tire. The blowout apparantly caused the bus driver to lose control of the 56-passenger motor coach.

The bus skidded about 200 feet, went off the road, headed down an embankment about an additional 225 feet and tipped over onto the driver's side, leaving more than three dozen people injured - luckily mostly "bumps and bruises". Most passengers were asleep when the crash occurred.

Thirty-nine people were taken to hospitals. The rest of the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps boarded a new bus and resumed its trek to Indianapolis by early Monday afternoon.

Members of the Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps describe the crash:

The instructors decided to go ahead with Monday's practice to keep members on their regular schedule. The corps rehearsed until 9 p.m. at the Nodaway football field, with a one-hour dinner break. With the military-style training that members undergo, taking the day off simply wasn't their style, one of the instructors said.