3 people killed in I-25 bus crash named; 911 tapes released
ALBUQUERQUE — Authorities say the three people killed in a bus crash on Interstate 25 over the weekend were all women from Mexico who had been living in Colorado.
State medical investigators confirmed the identities of the three bus passengers, and their names were released Wednesday by the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office.
They were identified as 65-year-old Maria Delosangeles of Denver, 58-yearold Olga Hernandes de Grajeda of Rocky Ford and 70-year-old Maria Doleres Orrantia Camacho of Loveland.
The crash happened early Sunday after the bus driver lost control while trying to avoid a car that had slammed into the back of a pickup. The bus — headed from Denver to El Paso — was then sideswiped by a semitrailer. Twenty-four people were injured.
Sheriff ’s Lt. Keith Elder said initial reports that the driver of the car was among the dead were incorrect.
Authorities also released 911 recordings and dispatch communications Tuesday from the night of the crash.
Some callers were breathless and others were crying as they flooded emergency phone lines.
“There’s children bleeding, there’s people unconscious,” a female caller tells a dispatcher. “They’re pulling them out of the bus right now. The bus flipped over.”
One of the first calls came from the pickup driver, who told dispatchers that his truck came to rest in the median of the interstate near Bernalillo. It was just after 2 a.m. and he was on his way to pick up his granddaughter from work.
The man told the dispatcher he was uninjured and was walking back toward the other car as speeding traffic approached. “Hey, slow down! Slow down! Slow down!” he yelled while on the phone. “Get somebody out here in a hurry. Traffic is coming in real fast.”
Within moments, there was more urgency.
“Oh my God. You hear that? There are more accidents,” he said.
The first police and emergency responders are heard asking dispatchers to send more help from surrounding communities.
They said they need more ambulances for an estimated 30 to 40 patients.
Dispatchers also received requests from officers to close the interstate as the wreckage was blocking both directions.
Authorities have said that emergency responders reported treating 38 people at the scene with injuries ranging from broken bones and lacerations to head and internal injuries.
Ten remained hospitalized Wednesday, but officials at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque said none was listed in critical condition.