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California

Smoke killed 7 of 10 victims in Northern California bus crash

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Flames engulf the vehicles just after a head-on crash near Orland, Calif., involving a FedEx truck and a bus carrying Los Angeles-area high school students on a visit to a college.   (Jeremy Lockett / Associated Press)
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Frankie Martin holds a prayer group at his home in Inglewood for Ismael Jimenez and Denise Gomez, friends lost in the bus accident.   (Dan Krauss / For The Times )
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National Transportation Safety Board investigator Robert Accetta examines the bus wrecked in a collision with a FedEx truck in Northern California.  (National Transportation Safety Board / EPA)
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National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine the remains of a FedEx tractor-trailer involved in a multiple-fatality crash with a bus in Northern California.  (National Transportation Safety Board / EPA)
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Traffic along the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Orland, Calif., moves past the scene of a fatal bus-truck crash.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A thank-you note inside Veterans Memorial Hall in Orland, Calif., was left behind for townspeople who helped out after a fatal bus-truck crash.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Valerie Hernandez, 17, left, and Lizette Cabrera, 16, stop by to pay their respects at a make-shift memorial for Adrian Castro at El Monte High School.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Tiffany Ramirez, 14, weeps after placing flowers on a memorial for Adrian Castro.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Adrian Castro, who was killed in Thursday bus crash, is remembered by students at a memorial on the sidewalk at El Monte High School.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A makeshift memorial in memory of Adrian Castro at El Monte High School.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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An El Monte High School student secures a banner hung at the school in tribute to senior Adrian Castro, who was killed in the crash.  (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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El Monte High School students light candles at a memorial for classmate Adrian Castro.   (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Jonathan Gutierrez talks with a reporter at LAX after surviving the bus crash in Orland, CA. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jonathan Gutierrez is given a cupcake from Rosie Kwak as he arrives at LAX a day after surviving the bus crash in Orland, CA.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Students console one another at El Monte High School. Adrian Castro, a senior at the school was killed in the bus crash.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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California Highway Patrol Officer Joe Stokes clears away crime scene tape at the scene of the deadly crash in Orland, Calif.   (Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images)
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The Nissan sedan of Bonnie and Joe Duran that was struck by a FedEx truck before it slammed head-on into a bus rests in the ditch beside Interstate 5 in Orland, Calif.  (Hector Amezcua / Associated Press)
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El Monte High baseball players are emotional as they discuss the death of teammate Adrian Castro, killed in the bus crash in Orland, CA.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, center, hugs school board member Steve Zimmer as he arrives at a LAUSD press conference.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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April Garcia,11, right, with her mom Blanca leave the Riverside home of Marisa Serrato,17, who is unaccounted for after a fiery bus crash in Orland, CA.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Briana Medina, 15, left, and Jenny Molina, 15, both freshmen at El Monte High School pay their respects to their friend Adrian Castro.   (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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A member of the Glenn County Sheriff’s Department escorts distraught people from Memorial Hall in Orland, CA.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Students sign a poster at El Monte High School in memory of Adrian Castro, a senior killed in the bus crash in Orland, CA.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A CHP officer looks over the wreckage of a big rig crash and charter bus in the northbound lanes of the Interstate 5 where it runs through the town of Orland, Ca.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A police photographer takes a pictures of the accident scene, where ten people were killed in the crash involving a charter bus and FedEx truck.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Students enter Banning High School in Wilmington on Friday morning. LAUSD officials said that 19 of its students were aboard the bus that collided with a FedEx freight truck in Northern California. At least 10 people were killed.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Manual Arts Senior High School student Alvaro Rodriguez, 18, right, is glad that his friend Rosa Cuveas, who was traveling on the bus involved in the fatal Northern California crash, is safe and not injured. He said he found about her through an Instagram photo seen on the smartphone image. He is flanked by another friend, Natalie Martinez.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Part of a big rig is loaded onto a flat bed trailer to be carted away in the aftermath of the crash.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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The burned out remains of a charter bus that crashed with a FedEx truck on Interstate 5 en route to visit Humboldt State University.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A worker looks over the demolished cab of the FedEx truck that crashed into a tour bus on Interstate 5 on Thursday in Orland, Calif.  (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
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Memorial candles burn outside the police perimeter set up as authorities work at the scene of a fatal crash between a FedEx truck and bus packed with L.A.-area high school students near Orland, Calif.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Wreckage from the crash of a big rig and a bus carrying L.A.-area students rests in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 where it runs through Orland, Calif.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
By Joseph Serna
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Most of the victims killed in a Northern California bus crash in April survived the initial impact only to die from smoke inhalation as fire tore through the carriage, coroner’s officials said.

Ten people died in the crash April 10, when a FedEx truck carrying two 28-foot trailers on the southbound 5 Freeway in Orland drove across a 58-foot center median into northbound traffic.

The truck first struck the back of a 2013 Nissan Altima, which rotated and moved off the freeway, and then hit a chartered bus carrying chaperons and high school students from Southern California to Humboldt State University.

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A post-crash fire was ignited, which burned both vehicles and significantly damaged the front of the bus, according to a report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Five students from Southern California high schools and three adult chaperons died, as did both the drivers. The driver and passenger of the Nissan suffered minor injuries.

On Monday, the Glenn County sheriff-coroner announced that two of the victims died of “multiple trauma” due to the collision. Seven died of asphyxiation due to inhalation of smoke. The coroner did not identify which victims died of what.

A 10th passenger who died at a hospital succumbed to burns, the Sacramento County coroner said.

So far, 15 lawsuits have been filed against FedEx and the bus company, Silverado Stages Inc. All but one of the suits was consolidated last week into a single case, said attorney Katherine Harvey-Lee, who filed a lawsuit July 14 on behalf of victim Mattison Haywood.

The single case not joined with the others probably will be coordinated alongside the group litigation for consistency’s sake, Harvey-Lee said.

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The Haywoods’ lawsuit mirrors the others and faults the FedEx driver for causing the collision and the bus for not providing enough emergency exits for passengers. Witnesses reported that at least one student died helping others escape the smoke and flames.

According to the NTSB investigation, the FedEx truck had departed about 10 a.m. from Sacramento to deliver two trailers to Weed, Calif., in Siskiyou County. It began the drive back to Sacramento about 3:30 p.m. with two new trailers.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The bus, which departed from Los Angeles, was carrying 43 students and three chaperons and had made a scheduled stop and driver change in Sacramento on its way to Humboldt, according to the report.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

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Joseph Serna

Joseph Serna is the deputy editor of culture and talent at the Los Angeles Times and helps oversee its career training and recruitment efforts.

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