Seven people died at the scene on US Highway 83 about 46 miles north of Laredo and another died later at a Laredo hospital, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein said.
"The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over," he said. "Everything's real preliminary right now."
Hein said the driver was among the survivors. His name and the names of passengers were not immediately available, Hein said.
The trooper said it was raining yesterday morning but it was uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30 am (local time). He said no other vehicles were in the area at the time.
Also Read
The National Transportation Safety Board said last night it was sending a team to also investigate the wreck. They were expected to arrive today.
Webb County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ricardo Rangel told the Laredo Morning Times the bus belonged to OGA Charters was headed to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo.
The bus company is based in San Juan, in Hidalgo County in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. A message left at the bus company yesterday was not immediately returned.
Priscilla Salinas, a spokeswoman for Laredo Medical Center, said bus passengers being treated there were in stable condition. She said she could share no additional information.
The highway at the accident scene was reopened by early evening. Laredo about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio.
The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years. In January 2015, two state corrections officers and eight inmates were killed after their Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus struck a piece of displaced highway guardrail west of Odessa.
Seventeen passengers died in 2008 near Sherman when their bus plunged over a highway bridge on their way to a religious retreat in Missouri. The NTSB blamed that crash on a retreaded tire on the right front axle that was punctured by an unknown object.