‘Catastrophic’ charter bus accident leaves five dead
Vehicle strikes a pole on highway in Merced County. The driver, passengers are injured.
At least five people were killed and numerous others seriously injured Tuesday when a crash into a sign pole tore a charter bus down the middle on Highway 99 in Merced County, the California Highway Patrol said.
The northbound bus struck the support pole for an overhead sign marking the Hammatt Avenue exit near the town of Livingston, CHP Officer Moises Onsurez told The Times. The crash occurred about 3:35 a.m., authorities said.
The pole split the white bus down the middle, tearing through it as it kept moving forward after impact, Onsurez said.
Video from the Merced Sun-Star showed firefighters climbing through windows in the early-morning darkness, and a road lined with ambulances.
“This collision is a catastrophic event,” Onsurez said.
About 30 passengers were aboard the vehicle, and some suffered major injuries, Onsurez said. About five injured people were flown to hospitals, officials said. The cause of the crash remained under investiga-
tion.
Northbound Highway 99 was closed in the area throughout the day.
Authorities identified the bus driver as Mario David Vasquez, 57, of Los Angeles, Onsurez said. Vasquez sustained major injuries and was hospitalized, according to the CHP.
The bus originated in Mexico and had stopped in Los Angeles on Monday night, Onsurez said. It made a stop in Livingston and was headed to Pasco, Wash.
The bus is registered to Autobuses Coordinados USA Inc., according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The company has an office in East Los Angeles. Phone calls by The Times were not answered.
The 1998 vehicle weighs 16,000 pounds when empty, and its registration is valid through Aug. 31, the DMV said.
Television news trucks waited Tuesday afternoon outside the red, white and green building on Olympic Boulevard where the Autobuses Coordinados USA office is located. The building houses several bus companies, and an area with a sign reading “A-Coordinados USA” had an empty seat behind the desk.
Signs near the Autobuses Coordinados area read “Airport, Tijuana every hour” in Spanish, and displayed travel locations such as Northern California, Oregon and Washington, including Pasco. Other signs read: “Payments in cash only” and “no refund on tickets.”
Workers inside the building were directing reporters outside, and people working at other ticketing desks said their companies were not associated with the bus that crashed.
Adrian Meza of Montebello stood outside the building. His sister and 15year-old nephew had tickets to return to Mexico on Tuesday night. He always comes to the location when they visit, he said.
“This is a real surprise,” Meza said about the crash.
Though he was using a different bus company, he said, he was going to cancel the tickets out of concern for his family’s safety.
The bus involved in the crash had been cited for at least seven violations over the last two years, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records that identify the charter bus by its license plate number.
During an inspection in Oregon on Feb. 5, 2015, Autobuses Coordinados USA was cited for having a driver behind the wheel who had a suspended commercial driver’s license, records show. During that same inspection, the bus received two citations for an “inoperable required lamp” and one citation for having a damaged or discolored windshield.
A roadside inspection in California on April 28 yielded three violations. The vehicle had a defective or no brake-warning device, prohibited aisle seats and other maintenance problems, records show.