Bus crash victims removed from the scene as more details emerge about accident

Two dozen people involved in the fatal church bus accident near Twin Peaks have been taken from the scene to hospitals, San Bernardino County authorities said.

One person was killed in the accident that occurred about 11:50 a.m. Monday as the bus was traveling westbound down a steep and slippery Highway 189, said Officer Mario Lopez of the California Highway Patrol. The bus collided with another vehicle and went over a small embankment, slid down about 25 feet and smashed into a 50-foot cedar, crumpling the cab of the bus.

There were 22 people on the bus and two in the other vehicle, Lopez said. Special tools were used to cut out bus seats and extricate some of the victims.

The injured were taken to Loma Linda Medical Center and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Ten people were listed in critical condition, and the others suffered only minor injuries, Lopez said. 

A man who was passing by and spotted the crash told KNX 1070 radio that the bus went down the mountain about 50 feet, coming to rest at a 45-degree angle.

“I hear kids screaming, there’s this bus down,”  he said. “Oh, God, it was terrible.”

He said he helped rescue two girls, one with a broken leg. He described the other girl as “dazed and confused.”

“A lot of them were crying, but this little girl, she’s saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.' She’s trying to apologize,” he told the radio station. He said he tried to console her.

“I didn’t do anything here special,” he said. “The pain and the blood I seen .... I guess it’s just getting to me.”

The bus, which was from the Light of Love Mission Church in Pasadena, went over the embankment and into a stand of cedars and white firs, authorities said. It came to a stop about five feet from a small snow-fed stream.

Church Deacon Steven Lee said a group of middle- and high school students were returning from a weekend church retreat in the mountains when the accident occurred.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

RELATED:

Photos: Bus crashes in mountains near Crestline

1 dead, more than 20 hurt in church bus crash

Teenagers trapped inside bus after it slides down mountainside

-- Phil Willon in Crestline and Victoria Kim in Pasadena

Photo: A CHP investigator surveys the scene down a hillside where a church bus crashed, killing one person, along Highway 189 in the San Bernardino mountains. Credit: Wally Skalij /Los Angeles Times

Comments

[truther]

The CHP website reports the "other vehicle" involved as being a battalion chief's vehicle.

[ssfullerton]

My sympathy to those involved and to their families. God be with you.

[uncle_charlie]

Shame here. Some of the best times I have ever had were at church retreats when I was a kid.

[Sean Mullen]

I will bet that the only seatbelt on that bus was the driver's. . .

[victor]

My father said long ago: “You cannot find God in church, or Buddha in temple” so for the Muslim’s God too.
If you want to look for your GOD, or to Buddha where do you go to find him?
He’s in your heart!!!

Churches, Temples have nothing to do with God and Buddha. So wake up people don’t let them fool you.

[dan1951]

These must have been very special kids for God to have taken one of them home so soon.

[Shakespeare]

May God's Love console those who mourn.

[blogking77]

officer mario lopez?? hes a cop now?

[udume]

Hey Victor, we are not fooled by people, this is something we know to be the absolute truth for ourselves. There is one God, Jesus. Why he allow certain things to happen? I don't know. He is God; He sees things we can't see, and knows things we don't know. I am not asking you to take my word on it but to know Him for yourself. I pray that you find the truth, that you find Him (Jesus).
To those involved in the accident and to your families, my sympathies. May the Lord strengthen you and restore your health.