Cause of Fatal Bus Accident Still a Puzzle

Investigators were still puzzled Friday by what caused a VISTA bus to swerve off the Conejo Grade and plunge down a 300-foot embankment, killing the driver, 46-year-old Sharon Merkel of Oxnard.

California Highway Patrol officers had speculated at the scene that Merkel might have had a massive heart attack, but a coroner’s report released Friday said Merkel died of head injuries.

“There was no evidence of a heart attack,” Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said.

Just before 6 p.m. Thursday, Merkel, a driver for the Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority, dropped off her last passengers of the day at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks and was heading back to a bus depot in Oxnard when the accident occurred.

Witnesses told officers that the bus--which was traveling about 55 m.p.h. in the middle lane--suddenly swerved left, hit the center divider and then swerved right across all three lanes through the guardrail and over the side of the hill, a CHP spokeswoman said.

Officials from Antelope Valley Bus, which operates the bus line for the Ventura County Transportation Commission, said the accident was the first traffic fatality involving one of their buses in the county.

A woman was killed in an accident with a VISTA bus earlier this year, but she suffered a heart attack before her car slammed into the bus on the Simi Valley Freeway near Moorpark, bus company officials said.

VISTA buses are regularly inspected by company mechanics and are also given random inspections by the CHP, said Elizabeth January, a spokeswoman for the company.

“We are very safety-conscious,” she said. “These buses are constantly being inspected.”

The 17-year-old MCI bus driven by Merkel had just been inspected by the CHP, January said, but investigators were looking for evidence of any possible mechanical failure.

“We don’t want to comment on the accident until the investigation is complete,” January said.

Merkel, who worked out of Antelope’s Oxnard bus yard for the past year, had driven a county school bus for several years before joining the company.

Merkel’s 26-year-old daughter, Tanya, also drove a school bus. When Merkel started working for Antelope, her daughter joined the company, diving for VISTA.

“The two were very close,” said Kimberly Knox, the mother of one of Sharon Merkel’s three grandchildren.

Merkel is survived by her husband, Lesley Merkel, her son Jesse, 26, her daughter Tanya, and three grandchildren, all of Oxnard.