FedEx Truck Bus Accident: Five students, three chaperones and the drivers of the bus and FedEx truck were killed. According to the California Highway Patrol and Humboldt State University, ten people were killed, half of them high school students, when a truck crashed into a tour bus full of college aspirants going to a campus tour in northern California on Thursday.
The accident happened on Interstate 5 near Orland, Glenn County. California Highway Patrol officials told ABC News that the FedEx truck crossed into oncoming traffic, striking a northbound car before colliding with the bus.
"All of a sudden I heard people screaming," Jonathan Gutierrez, 17, told NBC's "Today" show. He had been asleep before the impact, he said.
Gutierrez, who suffered facial cuts, said the aisle of the bus filled with smoke and students broke windows to escape. "It was a very surreal moment," he said.
"The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in Southern California, said 19 students from 16 of its high schools were on the bus tour headed to Humboldt State, but could not say whether any of the students who died were students at district schools," Yahoo reported.
Report says that, "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 on Thursday evening," CHP spokeswoman Tracy Hoover said.
Hoover said, "They are traumatized, absolutely. Most of them have scratches, cuts, burns, contusions and lacerations - a magnitude of injuries."
Police said about 34 people were taken by air and land ambulances to area hospitals in varying conditions. No one in the car that was side-swiped was killed, though the driver was sent to hospital with unspecified injuries.
The highway was closed in both directions and was not expected to reopen until early Friday.
According to CHP spokeswoman Lacey Heitman, apart from the driver, the bus was carrying between 44 and 48 students and several chaperones to the University for a Campus Tour.
