EMPORIA, Va., July 30 (UPI) _ Virginia state police say it be may be weeks before they know what caused a bus on a civil rights history tour to plunge off Interstate 95 into a southern Virginia river.

One man died and 34 people, including 28 children, were injured. All but four of the injured have been treated and released.

State police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame says today investigators have interviewed numerous witnesses to the Tuesday morning accident, but so far have not spoken with the 54-year-old driver.

Van Dame refused to comment on rumors that the driver may have fallen asleep, noting the investigation by police and the National Transportation Safety Board could take weeks. She says, ``We deal in facts, not speculation.''

The bus was on a ``Pathways to Freedom'' educational tour sponsored by the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute. The tour began in Detroit earlier this month and was stopping at civil rights and Underground Railroad sites across the South.

The accident occurred after an overnight ride from Charleston, S.C., en route to Washington.

Killed was the 25-year-old adopted grandson of Parks, an 84-year-old civil rights leader known for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in segregated Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. The deceased was a chaperone for the trip.

The driver, Donald Tolliver of Detroit, lost a hand and foot, and remains hospitalized today in stable condition at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond.

Also at MCV are a 14-year-old Atlanta boy, who suffered a spinal injury, and a 16-year-old girl with an injured ankle. A 12-year-old boy with a high fever is being kept for observation at Greensville Memorial Hospital in Emporia.

Van Dame says the bus, which landed sideways but only partially submerged in the Nottoway River, has been towed to an undisclosed location.

Police Sgt. Alan Monks said most of the adults on the bus had been drinking heavily. An hour before the crash, police stopped the bus and arrested its original driver. They believe another driver -- also under the influence of alcohol -- took his place.

Police Sgt. Monk said: "We took the keys and believed that we had immobilised the bus. However, we understand there was a second set of keys on the bus."

CAIRO, Jan 14 (Reuter) - A packed public transport bus plummeted off a Cairo bridge onto the bank of the Nile River on Tuesday, killing 38 passengers and injuring at least 29.

Police said the bus, with an estimated 70 people on board, had veered off the Sahel bridge in the poor Cairo district of Rod al-Farag, flipping over several times before it landed upside down on the Nile bank.

Rescue workers pulled out at least 30 bodies entrenched in the muddy banks of the river, said Major-General Omar Banawy who is in charge of river rescue operations. Many died of suffocation or were crushed when the bus fell, he added. "If the bus fell in the water, perhaps more people would have survived," Banawy told Reuters. "The mud makes it difficult for both the divers and the passengers to get out. Many people suffocated to death in the mud."

He said some passengers jumped out of the bus as it gradually sank in the river.

"I was in a micro-bus behind the bus which crashed," said Arafa Abderrahman. "All of a sudden the bus veered and crossed the divider in the middle of the bridge and went into the other lane, narrowly missing an oncoming taxi. Then it went over."

Mud-covered rescue workers and passers-by combed the river bank and shallows for more bodies before calling an end to the rescue operation. Security sources said that at least 25 bodies have been identified by their relatives.

A crane hauled the crushed and overturned bus, dripping mud and weeds, back onto the bridge. Police were investigating the bus for any mechanical failures. Eyewitnesses say the bus was speeding and that the driver lost control while taking a bend in the bridge.

Public buses are an inexpensive and popular means of transport for many people in Cairo. The bus was travelling on a route between Giza and Ain Shams in north Cairo.

Buses are usually overcrowded, with people standing in the aisles and some hanging out of the open doors. Cairo bus drivers, mostly inexperienced army officers, are notorious for their reckless driving.

Residents say that drivers on the bridge in Rod al-Farag often take shortcuts across parts of its exit and entrance ramps to avoid traffic, some times veering briefly into oncoming cars. Copyright 1997 by United Press International.

NEW DELHI, Sept 17 (Reuter) - More than two dozen people were believed to have died on Wednesday when a bus plunged off a bridge into the sea in southeastern India, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.

The news agency quoted witnesses as saying the driver of the state-owned bus apparently lost control of the vehicle when it reached the top of the windswept bridge in Tamil Nadu state.

PTI quoted police as saying three passengers including the conductor were rescued. More people might have died if the accident had occurred during the day, the police added.

(c) Reuters