“We have no indication that this driver was fatigued- we’re not anywhere near that”. The event occurred around 3:35 a.m. PST in Merced.
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“We’re daytime creatures”, Jasny said. Some of them were trapped inside the vehicle for hours and had to wait until firefighters cut the bus to rescue them. Truckers are allowed to drive 11 hours, but have longer required rest periods at 10 hours.
But they insist 57-year-old Los Angeles resident Mario David Vasquez “was very responsible” and would have stopped driving if he was exhausted, according to an NBC interview. It sheared straight through bus, stopping at the first rear axle “with a great impact”, he said.
Bravo’s wife also was seriously injured in the crash.
One of the survivors told local media that the bus appeared to be trying to pass another vehicle that wouldn’t let it pass just before it veered off the road. He sustained major injuries and was transported to an area hospital.
“It was chaotic”, CHP Capt. Brian Hawkins said of the miscount. It was a horrific scene when four were killed after a bus swerves off the road and is split in two.
Warnke has said rescuers pulled “bags of body parts” from the bus along with survivors, some of whom suffered severed limbs.
Such NTSB investigations last months before a probable cause is determined. A charter bus veered off a central California freeway before dawn Tuesda. Sometimes, they said, he worked seven days a week, ABC 30 reported. His wife is being treated in a Modesto Hospital.
Eva Maria Morales wept as she talked about her father, Jose Morales Bravo. She says he was a good and loving father who enjoyed nothing more than being around his children.
Rivera said she was going to live with her aunt in Washington in order to study in the U.S. She and her family are now waiting to hear back about her uncles. A dead man had been pushed on top of her, she said.
The bus was traveling north on State Route 99 when it crashed, only a few miles from its next stop, where it was scheduled to change drivers.
Another passenger, Leonardo Sanchez, was sleeping during his trip to OR to pick blueberries when he was thrown face-first into the seat in front of him, he told the AP. “I saw the bus driver, he was running around telling people what to do and then the next thing I hear- I saw the vehicle go by, it was like a Honda or Toyota- because he nearly hit me too and it nearly hit other people but I think he (the bus driver) got hit”, said Bustamante.
“We couldn’t pull people out because there was shattered glass everywhere, seats destroyed”, he said. He said some victims were thrown from the vehicle and landed in a ditch.
The 2 Investigates team found that the bus company involved in Monday’s crash, Autobuses Coordinados USA Inc., has been cited for 44 vehicle maintenance violations in the past two years.
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When Coleman’s 19-year-old son Manuel Espinoza went to the company’s office in Pasco, he received no information, she said.
