6 dead, 9 hurt when Greyhound bus crashes on highway in California’s Central Valley

6 dead, 9 hurt in California Greyhound bus crash

FRESNO, Calif. — A Greyhound bus traveling to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley early Thursday, killing six people and seriously injuring nine others.

The bus, carrying 36 people, struck an SUV that had overturned in front of it, slammed into a concrete center divider and clipped another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. just outside downtown Fresno, California Highway Patrol Officer Axel Reyes said.

The bus went off the right shoulder of the highway and down a 15-foot embankment before hitting a eucalyptus tree and coming to rest on a freeway off-ramp with its front end smashed and tree branches jutting into the vehicle.

Twisted pieces of metal, broken glass and torn clothing littered the ground around the wreckage.

Arlan Snider, who had been traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento to visit his mother, said he was asleep in the middle section of the bus when the crash occurred. He awoke to the smell of smoke and injured passengers around him.

“I woke up on the floor of the bus and started helping people off the bus,” Snider, 41, who escaped uninjured, said after arriving at Sacramento’s bus terminal.

The six dead people included four women and two men. Three of the women were in the overturned SUV, according to officials.

Nine people were taken to hospitals with moderate to critical injuries, Reyes said.

The bus driver, who was among the dead, was identified as James Jewett, 57, of Sacramento. He died instantly of massive injuries, said Fresno County Coroner Dr. David Hadden.

“The front of the bus was destroyed and the front part of the bus was pushed into his driver’s seat,” Hadden said.

The three women who died in the SUV were identified as Stephenie Cordoba, 20, and Vanessa Gonzalez, 19, both of Fresno, and Sylvia Lopez Garay, 18, of nearby Dinuba. Hadden did not know who was driving.

The passengers who died on the bus was identified as Epifania Solis, 60, of Madera, and Tomas Ponce, 79, of Mexico. Ponce and his wife, Sinforosa Ponce, 77, were heading to Merced to visit relatives. She was hospitalized with multiple injuries, the coroner said.

“I had just woke up and I heard a boom once, and a boom again and the next thing I know we were down this embankment,” Linda Gee, a passenger on the bus, told KMPH-TV in Fresno.

“I’m alive and I thank God I’m alive,” she said. “There was just bleeding everywhere.”

The blue Chevy Trailblazer that overturned in the fast lane also landed at the bottom of the embankment, its roof caved in and doors crushed.

Hadden said his office planned toxicology reports on the drivers of the bus and SUV, with results expected in about a week. There were no obvious signs that anyone had been drinking, such as bottles in the vehicles, he said.

The most seriously injured patients were taken to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, where attending surgeon John Bilello said one man remained in critical condition. The injuries included pelvic fractures and collapsed lungs.

“They were in serious pain when they got here. There was definitely some emotional shock and fear,” Bilello said.

The bus departed Los Angeles late Wednesday and stopped in Fresno before continuing on its route to Sacramento with 35 passengers on board, according to Greyhound officials. It was on its way to Madera for one of about eight scheduled stops when the crash occurred.

Jewett had worked for Greyhound since 1978 and was an excellent driver with a clean driving record, company spokesman Timothy Stokes said.

State Department of Motor Vehicles records show Jewett received a ticket in 2008 for failing to register a vehicle.

Associated Press Writers Judy Lin and Don Thompson in Sacramento and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco also contributed to this report.