Bus crashes in Germany, 7 seriously injured

A bus taking Belgian skiers home from a vacation in northern Italy came off a German highway and overturned early Sunday, police said. Seven people were taken to hospitals with serious injuries. The rest of the people on the bus, which was carrying 42 passengers and two drivers, suffered bruises and shock when the vehicle flattened a guard rail, plunged down an embankment on the side of the road and turned over. The accident happened just before 4 a.m. near Wuerzburg, in northern Bavaria. "It looks as though the driver fell asleep for a second" and lost control of the vehicle, police spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmitt said. Fire service workers had to free several people trapped in the bus, Schmitt said.