Around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9, a bus carrying parishioners from Our Lady of Guadelupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana overturned on Route 330 near Smiley Park. The San Bernardino County Fire Department responded around 9 p.m., with other agencies arriving shortly after, to find the bus on its side in a turnout with passengers evacuating themselves through the roof hatch, according to officials. Twenty victims were taken to hospitals via ambulance, en route within 15 minutes of first response. Three of the victims sustained severe injuries, according to authorities.
Per the San Bernardino Sun, the passengers were returning from a retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the Barton Flats area of the San Bernardino Mountains. According to KTLA, a witness saw the back brakes sparking before they apparently went out completely. After a failed attempt to stop the bus with the emergency brake, the driver aimed the bus for a boulder to avoid going over the cliff. Witnesses say a good Samaritan managed to put out the brake fire before it spread to the rest of the bus.
“It’s a miracle everyone’s alive,” passenger Ariana Rivera told Gene Kang of KTLA.
As of press time, California Highway Patrol had begun an investigation into why the bus’s brakes failed.
0 Comments