"All of a sudden I heard people screaming," 17-year-old Jonathan
Gutierrez said, saying he had been asleep before the
impact. Gutierrez, who suffered cuts on his face, said the aisle
of the tour bus filled with smoke and students broke windows to escape.
"It was a very surreal moment," he said.Ten people died, many of them
high school students, when a truck slammed into a tour bus with college
hopefuls heading to a campus tour in northern California on Thursday,
police said.
Five students,
three chaperones and the drivers of bus and FedEx truck were killed,
according to the California Highway Patrol and Humboldt State
University, which was to host the students' visit. The tenth fatality was confirmed by a spokeswoman early Friday as a chaperone on the tour bus. SEE MORE AFTER CUT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
More than 30 people were hurt after the
driver of the FedEx truck lost control, jumped a divider on Interstate
5, side-swiped a car and smashed head-on into the bus Thursday evening,
CHP spokeswoman Tracy Hoover said.
"They are traumatized,
absolutely," Hoover said of the injured. "Most of them have scratches,
cuts, burns, contusions and lacerations - a magnitude of injuries."
About 34 people were taken by air and land ambulances to area hospitals in varying conditions, police said.
No one in the car that was side-swiped was killed, though the driver was sent to hospital with unspecified injuries.
Apart from the driver, the bus was carrying between 44 and 48 students
and several chaperones to the university for a campus tour, CHP
spokeswoman Lacey Heitman said.
The crash took place near the city of Orland, 95 miles north of Sacramento.
The students, traveling from Los Angeles-area high schools, were part
of a program Humboldt State said "brings low-income and first-generation
prospective college students from the Los Angeles and San Francisco
areas to HSU's campus."
"The big rig and the bus were both engulfed in flames. You are talking
about two vehicles that are destroyed. There is hardly anything left of
the truck," Hoover said.
Two other charter buses that were also
carrying students to Humboldt - one from the Los Angeles area and one
from the Fresno area - had arrived safely, the university said.
Bonnie Kourvelas, a spokeswoman for FedEx Corp, said the company was aware that one of its trucks was involved in the crash.
"Our hearts go out to
those who have been affected, and we are here to support them, and
their families, in any way possible," he said in a written statement.
The students were to visit the campus for two days and stay in residence halls, the university said.
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