A tour bus has collided with a pickup truck on a rural mountain highway in southern California, killing eight people and injuring dozens of others, authorities have said.
The accident happened at about 6.30pm on Sunday and involved the bus, a pickup truck pulling a trailer and another car, said California highway patrol officer Mario Lopez. He confirmed that eight people had died and many more were injured in the crash about 80 miles east of Los Angeles near the town of Forest Falls.
Fire department spokesman Eric Sherwin said 27 people were treated at the scene for injuries varying from minor to life-threatening.
People were being extricated from the bus more than an hour after the crash on a mountainous stretch of the two-lane Highway 38 and rescuers were still searching the wreckage for victims hours later. Television footage showed the bus sitting upright but turned sideways on the road.
Sherwin did not know where the bus was heading or how the truck was involved. Highway 38 leads to Big Bear, a popular tourist area with a ski resort and other recreational facilities.
At least seven ambulances were called to the scene and patients were taken to several local hospitals.
Arrowhead regional medical centre said four women had been admitted from the crash. Redland Community hospital said it received one person in critical condition and one with minor injuries, while two more were en route with minor injuries. San Bernardino Community hospital said it had received one patient with undetermined injuries, while St Bernadine medical centre said it was treating two patients.
The California crash came less than a day after a bus carrying 42 high school students and their chaperones crashed into an overpass in Boston. Massachusetts state police said 35 people were injured after the driver took the bus on to a road with a height limit.
Monday 4 February 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/04/california-bus-crash-dead
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