School buses collision on Missouri highway (4 images)

GRAY SUMMIT, Mo., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A light-hearted summer trip for members of a Missouri high school band ended in a deadly crash when their buses got tangled in a chain-reaction crash.

Two people were killed Thursday morning on Interstate 44, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Dozens of people were injured, most of them members of the Red Regiment Band at John F. Hodge High School in St. James.

Band members had raised money for the annual outing to Six Flags. The crash occurred as they neared the park.

Officials with Climate Express in Washington, Mo., said one of their drivers, in a tractor with no trailer attached, slowed down for construction. A pickup truck rear-ended the tractor and was then hit by one of the two school buses.

The dead were identified as Jessica Brinker, 16, a member of the band, and Daniel Schatz, 19, the driver of the pickup. Schatz was a reserve quarterback at the University of Missouri-Columbia and son of a Republican candidate for Congress from Missouri.