According to Fresno TV station KMPH, California Highway Patrol says a charter bus driving north on Highway 99 near Livingston in Merced County from Mexico to Pasco, Washington, swerved for some reason and hit a sign pole.
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She climbed to the back seat and crawled out an exit window, but other passengers remained trapped, she said.
The pole cut right through the center of the bus, nearly splitting it down the middle. The bus almost split in half, killing five people and injuring many others.
A central California sheriff who also serves as his county’s coroner says a bus crash on a rural highway killed four people, not five.
The freeway cuts through farm fields in the San Joaquin Valley.
This still frame from video provided by KCRA3-TV shows authorities investigating the scene of a charter bus crash on northbound Highway 99 between Atwater and Livingston, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. Rescue crews respond to the scene of a charter bus crash on northbound Highway 99 between Atwater and Livingston, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016.
Multiple passengers died and numerous people were seriously injured when the northbound bus struck the support pole for a road sign at about 3:30 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
It was a mapped out road trip from Mexico to Pasco, Washington, with stops along the way in Los Angeles, Livingston and Sacramento.
This is a catastrophic event.
“There was lots of screaming and crying”, Sanchez told The Associated Press hours after Tuesday’s crash.
The still-intact sign stuck out from the roof of the crumpled bus hours after the crash as crews prepared to move the vehicle. Wreckage and debris including seat cushions, drink containers, pillows and a blanket were scattered in lanes and on the shoulder of the highway a few miles south of the town of Livingston. Investigators say because of the way the seats are positioned in the bus, they can’t confidently say they’ve retrieved all of the bodies.
“This is a tragedy”, he said, “and this will take a substantial amount of time to investigate and to clear”.
A total of 30 people were on board the bus.
“At this point we don’t know what occurred immediately before the crash”, said Don Karol, a senior highway accident investigator for the NTSB. However, they found no obvious signs of braking, so they believe the bus veered into the sign at full speed without stopping. The bus was set to stop in Livingston around 1:30 a.m.
Relatives told NBC Los Angeles that Vasquez was distraught over the recent death of his wife and hadn’t been sleeping well.
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According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has a high rate of vehicles going out of service and drivers being pulled from the job. Initially authorities reported the Tuesday crash had killed five people.
