HOUSTON - A charter bus carrying a Beaumont high school girls soccer team to a tournament skidded off a wet highway Wednesday afternoon and overturned, killing two students and injuring 20 others, school officials and state troopers said.

The bus was chartered by the Beaumont district from Sun Travel Charter. It was westbound in the rain on U.S. 90, headed for a tournament in Humble, a north Houston suburb, and was about two miles east of Devers when an eastbound pickup pulling a trailer lost some of its load of insulation in front of the bus, officials said.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said the bus driver swerved to avoid debris and the bus ran off the highway and rolled onto its side, he said.

Both the driver of the pickup and the bus driver were being interviewed about speed and conditions, and the bus was being checked, Mr. Vinger said. "There was no indication of alcohol or drugs," he said.

Ashley Brown and Alicia Bonura were pronounced dead at the scene, and 20 players and the coach were taken to hospitals in Beaumont and Liberty, DPS said.

Most suffered relatively minor injuries and were treated and released by evening. Eight more seriously injured students were taken to the trauma center at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, where officials said they had no immediate information on their conditions.

"It's a very tragic day for us," said Beaumont Superintendent Carrol Thomas. He said the district had dealt with Sun Travel for several years without incident.

A company out of Beaumont called Sun Travel Tours has a mixed safety rating, according to information posted on a federal bus and truck Web site. A woman who answered the phone there would not confirm or deny whether the bus belonged to the company.

The driver safety record for Sun Travel Tours is considered in the bottom third of all bus and truck companies. But police have found serious enough violations to order a driver off the road only once in the nine times they've inspected it.

The company's last accident happened in June 2004 on a dark, rainy highway in Angelina County. One person was injured. Another vehicle was involved, and it's unclear which vehicle was at fault.

Its insurance is active, according to the Texas Department of Transportation Web site. And bus inspectors who see Sun Travel Tours on the road are told to "pass" it because of its safety record.

Its only inspection in which a driver was ordered to stop driving also occurred in June 2004. That driver was put out of service for failing to keep a current logbook designed to ensure that drivers aren't too tired to drive.

Teachers, students and parents gathered Wednesday night in the gymnasium of the school, holding hands and remembering the victims, The Beaumont Enterprise reported. Mr. Thomas said counselors would be made available to the students today.

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