The bus immediately burst into flames, Hoover said.
Horrible..prayers for the families of those killed. Would like to know the high schools that the students came from since I live in SoCal
Dispatchers said that Mercy’s helipad was busy with an influx from the crash.
One young woman, 18, who had been in the back seat of the bus was taken to Shasta Regional Medical Center after the “rather traumatic” crash with cuts and back pain, paramedics said.
Humboldt State University said in a written statement that the students were en route for the school’s Spring Preview Day scheduled for April 12.
oh...how awful. I just looked at the pictures of the bus and it was worse than I imagined.
The California Highway Patrol told Redding, Calif., NBC station KNVN-TV that there were nine fatalities and 35 hurt. Our Los Angeles sister station KNBC says the bus was carrying high school students from the Los Angeles area on a college visit to Humboldt State University.
The bus belonged to Silverado Stages, a tour bus company based out of San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The group was heading to the university’s April 12 Spring Preview Day, Humboldt State school officials said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if any of the high school students were victims in the crash.
At least 32 people have been taken to the hospital, according to the CHP. There were 46 people on board the bus.
The injured were taken to at least 7 hospitals in the area, authorities said.
One family member told NBC4 Southern California the tour bus was filled with students from various schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Another parent said her daughter was a student at Norte Vista High School in Riverside.
It was not immediately clear if any of the students were victims in the crash.
Parents and family members of students who were on the bus may contact university police for more information at 707-826-5555.
Orland is about 480 miles north of Los Angeles, and 150 miles north of San Francisco.
Did the bus driver fall asleep? Sometimes they do when they push too hard—drive just too long.
How horrible. Praying now.
It’s steep, narrow and only a K rail to separate directions in the stretch south of Lake Shasta. Wow.
Some of the students are reportedly from R.F. Kennedy High School in Koreatown, an uncle of one of the students involved told Eyewitness News.
This news link has more info./photos...looks like maybe the semi tractor caught fire 1st: http://www.redding.com/news/2014/apr/10/50-hurt-after-semi-tour-bus-collide-i-5-tehama-cou/
Oh this is awful! We are on the e-mail list for Humboldt State because I was looking into it for my daughter a few months ago. (She’s not doing these sorts of tours until next year, and won’t be going with a whole class when she does.) As late as yesterday, they were still sending us reminders about their program this weekend for visiting high school students, saying walk-ins would be welcome. Now they will have far fewer visitors than they were expecting.
Tragic. Prayers up.
AP reports drivers of bus and FedEx truck are both among the fatalities.
So sad. In just a few seconds lives are forever changed.
“The victims were teenage kids. A lot of them were freaked out. They were shocked. They still couldn’t grasp what happened,” Jason Wyman with the Orland Volunteer Fire Department said.
“You hear about it in the news, but you never seen anything like that,” he said.
Wyman said when he drove a water truck to the highway, both the bus and truck were fully engulfed in flames, sending thick, dark smoke into the air.
He said he was first focused on putting out the fire, and once it was under control he saw dozens of people walking wounded.
“The first victim that was taken out of the bus was severely burned,” Wyman said.
Oh no! Prayers for those affected!