He said some victims were thrown from the vehicle and landed in a ditch. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. He says he knows of no deaths among those taken to hospitals.
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Of the 18 injured, three were initially in critical condition but they have since been upgraded to serious, officials said.
According to officials from the California Highway Patrol, as the vehicle kept traveling forward following the impact, the pole – marking the Hammatt Avenue exit close to Livingston – tore through the bus, nearly splitting it in two. Besides the passengers who died, seven suffered major injuries, three had moderate injuries and 13 received minor injuries.
A pole sliced down the middle of a charter bus Tuesday after it veered from the highway, killing five people and injuring 18, reports say. He said that as he was sleeping, he isn’t sure what caused the crash, but that the driver seemed fine.
The violent collision woke up Leonardo Sanchez, who found himself in chaos: Fellow passengers were screaming and crying.
“That vehicle wasn’t allowing him to pass and it kind of ran him off the road”, Nakia Coleman of Pasco, Washington, told Washington’s Tri-City Herald newspaper.
Doctors Medical Center in Modesto received five patients, including two men and one woman in critical condition and two women in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Carin Sarkis said.
Officials said there were 27 people, including the driver, aboard the bus when it struck a large sign post amid San Joaquin Valley farmland shortly before 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock said earlier it was transferring a man in serious condition to the Modesto facility.
The accident sliced the bus from front to back, with the vehicle coming to a stop when its first rear axle hit the pole. The 55-year-old said he was left with pain in his stomach and a bruised jaw and mouth.
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told The Associated Press that several of those who were injured lost limbs, and he said rescuers brought out “bags of body parts” from survivors.
CHP did not find brake marks at the scene, which makes officers suspect that the bus crashed into the pole at full speed, but how fast was it going, it is unknown.
Autobuses Coordinados USA was operating the bus.
Authorities say a bus crash on a central California freeway has killed five people and sent at least five others to hospitals.
The driver of the bus was identified as Mario David Vazquez, 57, from Los Angeles.
Emergency workers climbed in through the windows to pull out trapped passengers.
The northbound lanes of the freeway are closed during the investigation.
ATWATER, Calif. (AP) A bus was almost sliced in half after plowing into a highway pole in California’s heavily agricultural San Joaquin Valley, killing five people as survivors faced horrific scene of wounds and screams.
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The bus was traveling north up State Route 99, which cuts through the center of California farm country and was about 15 miles from Merced when it crashed.
