Bus Accidents

At least eight people have been killed in a horrific bus crash in California, after a day trip of skiing turned into tragedy for a group of Mexican tourists.

On Sunday night, a tour bus carrying travellers from Tijuana, Mexico crashed into a pick up truck after the driver appeared to lose control. The bus was travelling on a winding, mountainous road in Southern California when it suddenly careened into the oncoming lane, striking into a car. The bus then flipped onto its roof and smashed into a pickup truck, said authorities.

According to the accident report, the accident occurred at approximately 6.30 pm on State Route 38, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. The accident scene was covered in debris following the crash, with the mangled wreck of the bus on its side, blocking both lanes of the highway. Emergency rescue crews arrived promptly on the scene following the accident, and worked for hours to free passengers who were trapped in the wreckage of the bus. The bus was returning to Tijuana after a skiing day trip, said the spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol, Mario Lopez.

The extent of the accident and the number of people killed made the accident scene a nightmare, compounded by the fact that the bus was severely damaged and it was difficult to free passengers. Eight passengers were declared dead on the scene, while a further 38 were transported to local hospitals for treatment. Many of the injured lost limbs and sustained life-threatening injuries, and the death toll of the accident may still rise.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation, Michelle Profant, described the scene as ‘a mess’, with severed limbs lying around the bus. The driver of the bus survived the accident, and told authorities that his brakes failed while he was heading down the hill, causing him to lose control and start the chain of events that lead to the accident.

The tour bus was operated by Scapadas Magicas LLC, based in National City, California. According to department of transport records, the company is appropriately licensed to carry tours across state lines and has a good safety record, with no crashes in the last two years. The company is yet to make a comment to the media.

This latest crash comes just 24 hours after 35 people were injured when a bus carrying 42 passengers hit into an overpass in Boston, Massachusetts.

Media attention across the globe remains focused on a horrific situation in the small town of Midland City, Alabama, after a gunman shot dead a school bus driver and took a five year old autistic boy hostage.

Police teams have descended on the rural Alabama property in which the gunman is thought to be hiding in an underground bunker. Authorities are currently continuing with attempts to reason with the gunman and free his hostage.

According to initial reports from authorities, the suspected shooter boarded the school bus as it was dropping children off at their homes in Midland City. The gunman ordered that the bus driver allow the five year old boy off the bus with him. When the driver refused, the gunman shot him dead and took the child captive before escaping from the scene, said Wally Olsen, the Sheriff of Dale County. The bus driver has since been identified as Charles Albert Poland, Jr.

There are approximately 50 emergency vehicles and hundreds of law enforcement officers at the scene of the underground bunker, where negotiations are continuing with the captor. The media has been kept away from the scene, and neighboring residents have been evacuated from the area for safety regions, said a spokesperson for the police department of the adjacent town of Dothan, Rachel David. David also stated that authorities have confirmed that the child is alive and being held captive in the bunker.

There have been few updates on the situation, with Sheriff Olsen updating the press twice on Thursday to say that negotiations, which are taking place through a PVC pipe connected to the bunker, were ongoing.

The suspect, 65 year old Jimmy Lee Dykes , has been described by neighbors as a strange individual who used to stare at people in the neighborhood.  Neighbor Kelly Miller said she heard multiple gunshots on the morning of the incident, and screaming, and immediately suspected that Dykes must be involved.

Concerned citizens of the Midland City community have attended candle light vigils at churches across the town on Wednesday night, praying for the safe release of the boy.

The identity of the boy has not been released to the media, however he is a five year old child who suffers from autism. Authorities have been able to provide medication, crayons and a coloring book to the child in the bunker.

There is no obvious connection between the suspect and the child, who appears to have been picked at random by Dykes.

A student from New Zealand who was the driver of a car that crashed in Kenya almost two weeks ago, killing three New Zealand residents and a Kenyan driver, has formally apologized for the incident.

18 year old David Fellows, a former student of Tauranga Christian College in New Zeland, was driving a minibus when it crashed, killing anaesthetist Dr. Brian Johnston, his wife Grace and a former student of Bethlehem College, Caitlin Dickson. The three victims were part of a group of 19 volunteers from Bethlehem College, who were on a mission trip to Kenya where they were building classrooms for a school in a rural Kenyan village

The mission group had hired a Kenyan driver, Christopher Mmata, to drive the minibus. Mmata was also killed in the crash. Bethlehem College authorities yesterday revealed that it was in fact David Fellows that was driving the bus at the time of the crash, and not Mmata as was previously thought. Fellows was initially told to keep quiet about the switch by the Bethlehem College representative in Kenya.

Chairman of the Bethlehem College Board, Greg Hollister-Jones, said that the board has commissioned an independent investigation into the accident. According to Hollister-Jones, the agreement was that the local driver would be providing all of the transport during the trip, and an investigation will be conducted into why Fellows was driving. It appears that Fellows was asked to drive a short section of their journey, and no passengers were concerned about the arrangement as he holds a valid New Zealand driving license.

Bethlehem College principal Eoin Crosbie has said that David is bearing a ‘terrible burden’ for the deaths, and has apologized to the victim’s families. David also apologized to the Mmata family, who initially thought that Christopher was responsible for the accident.

David came forward after the funeral services for the Johnstons’ about the switch, and the information was confirmed by authorities on Sunday. Mr Fellows was not seriously injured in the accident, and returned back to New Zealand last week. Other members of the mission team will be arriving home this week, said Mr. Crosbie.

According to Tauranga officials, the accident occurred when Mr. Fellows lost control of the mini bus, rolling into a ditch on the highway between Nairobi and Murang on Saturday. There were 16 people on board the bus at the time.  The results of the investigation into the incident are expected to take several weeks.

At least 11 people have been killed and a further 32 injured, some seriously, after a passenger bus crashed into a ravine in Eastern Portugal on Sunday.

According to police authorities, the bus was en route to the popular tourist destination city of Santa Maria da Feira when the accident occurred. The bus had departed from the city of Badajoz in Spain, and was carrying mostly Portuguese nationals who were returning from vacation in Spain.

The accident occurred about half way into the bus’s journey, near the towns of Coimbra and Serta, near Carvalhal in the central Portuguese district of Castelo Branco, at approximately 08.45 am local time.

Over 200 emergency rescue personnel, including fire fighters, paramedics and police officials were deployed to the accident scene in close to 100 emergency vehicles, causing massive traffic congestion in the area. In addition, two helicopters were deployed to the scene to transport the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.

Medical personnel at the scene worked tirelessly to free injured passengers from the wreckage of the bus, which was in a difficult position in a ravine. Although the exact circumstances surrounding the crash are not yet clear, it appears that the driver lost control on a slippery road following major rains in the area. The bus veered off the road as it was approaching a corner and plunged into a ravine. There were 43 passengers on board the bus at the time.

Emergency personnel declared 10 people dead on the scene, including four women and six men, all between the ages of 50 and 70 years. A further six passengers were seriously injured and were transported to hospital in Coimbra by helicopter, with the remaining passengers sustaining only minor injuries. One of the most seriously injured patients passed away later in hospital. Five of the patients remain in a serious condition, with head and chest injuries.

According to the leader of the rescue team, Mr. Rui Esteves, the identities of all of the passengers on the bus are yet to be determined. However it is thought that all of them were Portuguese nationals, and next of kin are currently being informed of the accident.

Although Esteves and police authorities did not give an indication as to the cause of the accident, the mayor of the town of Serta, Jose Nunes, has said that the poor weather conditions and roadworks in the area played a role.

Michael Ferguson drove his wife Lorraine to a bus stop in Brooklyn on Friday morning, kissing her goodbye as she stepped out of the car. Seconds later, however, Ferguson had the misfortune of witnessing a horrific scene – Lorraine was hit by a charter bus just seconds after waving to her husband. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

According to Ferguson, 55, the bus went through a stop sign before hitting Lorraine. These reports, however, have not yet been confirmed by police.

In Ferguson’s emotional statement to police, he said that his wife kissed him goodbye and jumped out of the car when she saw the bus approaching. He then describes the terror of seeing his wife’s last moments alive.

Michael Ferguson was parked in Carnasie at the intersection of Avenue K and E. 105^th street, close to the bus stop where Lorraine would catch the B103 Express bus to her workplace at New York Life insurance. Lorraine was waiting for the bus in the car to shelter from the cold.

At 7.15, Lorraine saw the bus approaching and left the car, walking across the intersection to the bus stop. According to Michael, the charter bus did not stop at the stop sign at the intersection, continuing straight along 105^th Street and into Lorraine. ‘He just turned and hit her’, said Michael.

Lorraine, who was 47 years old, was trapped underneath the bus. She died on the scene before emergency rescue services arrived, said police authorities. As emergency workers removed Lorraine’s body from the scene, Michael broke down.

The bus driver, who has not yet been named by police, pulled over immediately and remained at the scene of the accident. He is cooperating with the police investigation. According to the police officers investigating the case, there are no charges expected to be laid against the driver. Despite Michael’s statement that the driver jumped the stop street, there has been no corroborating evidence found to suggest that the driver was driving recklessly.

The charter bus company that operated the bus, Rides Unlimited, has not yet responded to media requests for a comment on the accident.

According to Lorraine Ferguson’s mother, Eudeen Smith, her daughter was a cheerful and friendly person who cared for her family greatly. Ferguson moved to the US from Jamaica 20 years ago, and she and Michael have two sons, a 22 year old and a 30 year old who is currently serving in the US Army.

31 students have been injured in Newton County after their school bus was rear-ended by another bus on Tuesday afternoon. The driver of the school bus was also injured in the accident.

According to police reports, the crash occurred at approximately 3pm while the school bus was collecting students from Rocky Plains Elementary School. The accident happened on the southbound lane of Highway 162, close to the school.

The Georgia State Patrol, who is investigating the accident, said that initial reports from the scene indicate that the first bus was stopping to offload students when the second bus crashed into the back of it.

The school buses that were involved in the collision were bus no. 142 and bus no. 106, said a spokesperson for the Newton County School District in a press statement issued to CBS Atlanta News. Both buses were full of students at the time. Between the two buses, 31 students were injured. All of the injured learners were transported to the Newton Medical Center on another school bus, where they were treated for minor injuries. Four of the students were later transferred to Rockdale Medical Center, according to the director of marketing and business development for Rockdale. Many of the students have already been released from hospital and returned to school on Tuesday afternoon.

The bus driver of one of the buses sustained more serious injuries, and was transported to hospital by ambulance together with one other student. His injuries are not life-threatening, however, said a spokesperson for the hospital.

The students who were not injured in the accident were taken back to school by another bus, where they were picked up by parents or transferred onto another bus to be taken home.  The Newton County School District reported that the school had called parents to notify them about the accident while the students were being transported to hospital.

It is not yet clear exactly what the cause of the accident was, however it appears that the driver of the second bus did not see the first driver stop and was unable to stop in time to avoid hitting the back of the bus. A full investigation will be carried out into the incident by the Georgia State Patrol, who are currently collecting statements from the pupils on the bus and from eye witnesses at the scene.

There was no further information on the accident by Tuesday afternoon.