Bus Plunges Into Ditch After Rider Tries to Take Wheel

A Greyhound bus passenger who was heard muttering that a gunman was after him tried to seize the steering wheel from the driver, forcing the bus into a ditch and injuring all 38 people on board, police said.

The passenger was arrested after police searched the area for more than an hour and was being held in the Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder. Investigators were trying to learn his identity.

The bus, traveling from Seattle to Los Angeles, had just passed the Sacramento airport on Interstate 5 when a man grabbed the steering wheel and tried to drive into the median, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Lt. John McGinness said. The bus was moving at 60-65 mph at the time.

A passenger sitting near the man said he had been talking to himself and muttering that a gunman was after him, McGinness said.

A helicopter took at least two seriously injured passengers to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Sixteen were taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The identities and conditions of the injured were not immediately released. Those who refused treatment were taken to the Greyhound station in Sacramento and put on another bus.

The driver was treated at the crash site for minor injuries.

“We didn’t know what was going on until it was too late and we were already in the ditch,” said passenger Keith Alvis of Seattle, adding that passengers stayed calm throughout the incident. He said the scuffle lasted only seconds.

The man apparently got on the bus in Redding and planned to get off in Stockton, McGinness said.

Passenger Trent Pursley, 23, of Temecula said he felt lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries.

“God was watching over me, that’s for sure,” said Pursley, who saw a girl in the back of the bus tossed toward the front.

The driver, who picked up the bus in Redding, was being treated for head injuries at the scene.

Greyhound spokesman Marcus Clark said the driver should be commended for trying to keep control of the bus. Clark declined to release any information on him.

The bus was not equipped with passenger seat belts, and was not required to have them under California law, CHP Sgt. Tom Allen said. The driver had a seat belt but it was not known if he was wearing it, Allen said.