6 dead in Highway 99 bus crash in Fresno
Posted at 06:36 AM on Thursday, Jul. 22, 2010
11:05 a.m.: Saint Agnes Medical Center has discharged six of the eight bus crash patients it was treating, spokeswoman Kelly Sanchez said. Two patients remain; their conditions were not available.
10:48 a.m.: A 79-year-old grandfather traveling from Mexico to visit family in Merced was apparently the one Greyhound bus passenger who died shortly after being brought to Community Regional Medical Center.
The grandfather, Tomas Ponce, died from heart complications, said his granddaughter, Yuridia Hampton. Ponce's wife, Sinforosa Arreola, 77, was critically injured in the accident, with fractures in both arms and both legs, family members said. She underwent surgery to remove blood that entered her lungs.
Also on the bus was Hampton's great-uncle, Adolfo Ponce, who broke a leg and wrist, she said.
In all, four victims from the crash were transported to Community Regional, trauma surgeon Dr. John Bilello said this morning. The fourth victim, described as a younger male, was not related to the other three.
Bilello said the three surviving patients have "significant injuries." Without identifying her by name, Bilello said Arreola was the most seriously injured and was in the intensive-care unit. He indicated that Tomas Ponce died "despite our best efforts" to save him.
10:07 a.m.: Six women and two men from the Greyhound bus crash were taken to Saint Agnes Medical Center, said Kelley Sanchez, a hospital spokesman. Four were in categorized as "urgent" patients when they arrived and four were "walking wounded" with less serious injuries. All were adults, Sanchez said.
The first group of patients arrived at the hospital at 3:45 a.m., followed by others about 5 a.m., Sanchez said.
Five patients were taken to Community Regional Medical Center, said Mary Lisa Russell, a hospital spokeswoman. One died, she said.
One CRMC patient has been discharged and three remain at the hospital. One of the remaining patients is in serious condition, Russell said. Doctors described the other two as being in "guarded" condition.
Kaiser Permanente hospital in Fresno received four patients with minor injuries. All were treated and released by 8:30 a.m. One of the patients was a 10-year-old child.
9:44 a.m.: Saint Agnes Medical Center received eight patients with moderate injuries, said hospital spokeswoman Kelley Sanchez. She said doctors expect most will probably go home today.
9:40 a.m.: Greyhound spokesman Tim Stokes said that the bus company records show 35 passengers were on the bus at the time of the crash. Stokes said the company is continuing to gather information about the crash.
9:38 a.m.: Northbound Highway 99 has been reopened to traffic, the California Highway Patrol said.
9:20 a.m.: Officer Axel Reyes of the California Highway Patrol said CHP investigators were trying to determine whether the Trailblazer had already rolled and stopped on Highway 99 when it was struck by the Greyhound bus.
Reye said he could not confirm media reports that three of the dead were in the Trailblazer. He said investigators were working to determine exactly which vehicles the victims were in.
9:05 a.m.: Six people are dead and four are in critical condition after an early morning crash of a Greyhound bus Thursday on northbound Highway 99 at McKinley Avenue in Fresno.
Two of the dead were men and four were women. The four women were bus passengers and one of the men was the bus driver.
The crash occurred just after 2 a.m. The bus was headed from Los Angeles to Sacramento. After stopping in Fresno, the next scheduled stop was in Madera.
Northbound Highway 99 traffic is being detoured at Olive Avenue to Golden State Highway back to northbound 99, the California Highway Patrol said. Southbound traffic on Highway 99 was moving slowly and Fresno police were detouring southbound traffic on Golden State at McKinley.
At 8:50 a.m., the CHP said officers hoped to open northbound Highway 99 about 9:30 a.m.
The CHP said 48 had reservations to ride on the Greyhound bus. However, it was unclear how many were aboard at the time of the crash.
CHP officer Axel Reyes said the collision was triggered when a Chevrolet Trailblazer overturned in the highway's fast lane and was struck by the bus. The bus then hit a Honda CRV.
All three vehicles careened off the highway and down an embankment. The bus struck a eucalyptus tree.
The driver of the CRV suffered minor injuries.
"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 television station KMPH.
"I'm alive and I thank god I'm alive," she said. "There was just bleeding everywhere."
In addition to the four critical injuries, six others suffered moderate injuries.
The injured were taken to Community Regional Medical Centers and to other Valley hospitals, authorities said.
Reyes said another bus picked up nine uninjured passengers so they could continue to their destinations.
That bus arrived at the Sacramento Greyhound bus station about 7:30 a.m.
A former Sacramento resident who was on the bus said he felt "blessed to be alive."
Arlan Snider, 41, who now lives in Phoenix, said he was sleeping in a seat in the middle of the bus around 2:35 a.m. when the bus crashed.
"I hit the seat in front of me and then hit the floor," Snider said. "I helped a couple of people who could get off and then the medical people got there and told me to stop."
Snider was traveling from his home in Arizona through Los Angeles and north to Sacramento to visit his mother.
Asked how he feels to be in Sacramento, Snider said: "Beats being on the side of the road in Fresno."
Snider and about 10 other uninjured passengers from the bus were transported to Sacramento where they arrived at 7:30 a.m.
He said in a sidewalk interview outside the bus station that in the confusion after the crash, passengers were searching for "those who did not get off the bus."
He also said there was a big hole in the bus from the crash.
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