By Alejandro Lazo, Zusha Elinson and Erica E. Phillips
Investigators were trying to determine the cause of a Thursday
night collision between a FedEx delivery truck and a charter bus
that killed 10 people--five of them high-school students on the
bus.
The vehicles were on opposite sides of a freeway near Orland, in
Northern California, when the FedEx truck crossed the median and
hit the bus, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher said.
On Friday morning, one side of the state's major freeway where
the crash occurred, Interstate 5, was still closed and more crash
investigators were on their way to the scene. The National
Transportation Safety Board launched a "go-team" to investigate the
crash.
Both the driver of the FedEx truck and the bus were killed,
according to the CHP and Humboldt State University. Five of the
dead are high-school students, according to Los Angeles school
officials. The bus was carrying the students to the university's
"spring preview" event on Friday, which is for prospective
students, according to the school.
The students were traveling as part of the university's Preview
Plus, a 20-year-old program funded by the university that brings
low-income and first-generation students from the Los Angeles and
San Francisco areas to the campus, according to the university.
There were three charter buses carrying students, two were from
the Los Angeles area and one was from the Fresno area. One of the
Los Angeles buses was involved in the accident. About 40 to 45
passengers were on each bus, said Joyce Lopes, vice president of
administrative affairs for Humboldt State University. The buses
were operated by a charter bus company that contracts with the
school.
Ms. Lopes said that none of the passengers who were involved in
the crash made it to the school. Fewer than a dozen made it out of
the crash without injuries and were at the Veterans Memorial Hall
building in Orland. The other passengers were triaged to various
hospitals in the area, Lopes said.
"Our hearts go out to those who have been affected, and we are
here to support them, and their families, in any way possible,"
President Rollin Richmond said in a statement. The school said the
president traveled to the Chico area to visit with some of the
students and families.
A spokeswoman for FedEx said that "Our hearts go out to all of
those involved and their families. We are cooperating fully with
the officials investigating this accident."
Several students on the buses were from Los Angeles area
schools. The L.A. Unified School District confirmed Friday morning
that 19 students from 16 of the district's schools were on the
trip, and officials said in a statement that they'd be "providing
support" on those campuses Friday. A senior official from LAUSD was
said to be en route to the site.
L.A. Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy said in a
statement late Thursday night that he was "deeply saddened to learn
about the tragic accident."
Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Busciano wrote on his Facebook
page late Thursday night that two students from Banning High
School, in L.A., had been on the bus. "Both students are OK!" he
wrote.
One of those students, Jonathan Gutierrez, was hospitalized. In
a Twitter post early Friday morning, he wrote: "i just want to be
in my room. everything is okay when i'm in my room."
Write to Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com, Zusha Elinson
at zusha.elinson@wsj.com and Erica E. Phillips at
erica.phillips@wsj.com
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