ORLAND, Calif. — Two conflicting eyewitness accounts emerged Saturday as investigators delved deeper into the cause of the horrific collision between a truck and a charter bus that killed 10 and cast a pall over a college-acceptance trip to Humboldt State University.
A driver who was sideswiped moments before Thursday evening's fatal accident said she saw flames coming from beneath a FedEx freight truck as it veered across a grassy median toward disaster.
A man who lives next to Interstate 5, however, said he saw no flames from the truck before the crash and watched the twin-trailer FedEx vehicle swerve out of control after it made an abortive attempt to move into the fast lane.
Both witnesses said the truck veered sharply from southbound lanes, across the median and into a Silverado Stages charter bus, which carried 48 people, including 44 Southern California high school students.
"When they collided, it was boom!" said Ryan Householder, 31, who watched from his home, where he had been mowing his lawn. He said he was haunted by the screams of those who couldn't escape the burning bus.
A National Transportation Safety Board member said Saturday evening that the truck left no skid marks, on either the roadway or the median, as it veered into oncoming traffic. In contrast, more than 145 feet of tire marks indicated that the bus driver tried to stop and swerve to the right, said the NTSB's Mark Rosekind.
"That driver was clearly reacting to a situation with braking and a driving maneuver," he said.
Rosekind cautioned that it remained too early to tell what prompted the FedEx driver to leave the southbound lanes. The investigator said blood samples had been obtained from the drivers, both of whom died in the crash. The samples will be used to test for alcohol, drugs or medication.
The regulator confirmed that some of the victims were thrown from the bus. "We're going to look at whether seat belts might have kept them in place and whether that would have made a difference," Rosekind said.
Rosekind said a black-box-style electronic device was recovered from the bus and will be analyzed. The truck's device was destroyed, but other steps will be taken to analyze the machinery.
Rosekind said the bus was a "very new motor coach" — only about a month old. The FedEx truck was manufactured in 2007, he said.
The new details about the moments before the accident came as three more students, previously listed as missing, were confirmed dead. The toll includes five students, three adult chaperons and the still-unidentified drivers. Final, formal identification of remains could take several weeks.
"We have no one that's missing. All the names are accounted for. We just don't know which body goes with which name," said Larry Jones, sheriff and coroner for Glenn County, north of Sacramento. "And we don't know at this point what body to release to what family."
The sliver of uncertainty provided no solace to the families, who, Jones said, had "dealt with the reality of the loss."
Dorsey High School student Jennifer Bonilla, among those newly confirmed dead, was a devoted, self-motivated student who had a college scholarship in hand, according to staff at the Crenshaw-area school.
Teacher Noah Lippe-Klein had recently written a letter of recommendation for the teenager and praised "her ability to think critically about the world and her profound, college-level writing skills."
A member of the campus eco-club who participated in beach cleanups and environment walks in Baldwin Hills, Bonilla had been accepted into a number of schools and was excited about the Humboldt tour, Lippe-Klein said.
Ismael Jimenez and Denise Gomez — friends and fellow students at Animo Inglewood Charter High School — also were confirmed dead. The two 18-year-olds and a group of other friends had been close since middle school, where they liked to congregate around a favorite oak tree, a friend said.
Jimenez was an honor student who was passionate about art, constantly drawing and painting, his sister Evelin said. He drew pictures for everyone in his life — particularly horses for his mother and various scenes for his girlfriend of nearly three years. He was "beyond excited" to be bound for college and a career in art, his sister said.
Gomez was a music lover who played the guitar and led the Earth Club at the Inglewood school, said friend Frankie Martin, another Animo high senior. The Humboldt-bound student loved the outdoors and encouraged Martin to pursue his own college dreams.
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