Brakes on 3 axles failed before potato truck slammed transit bus

Jonathan Hollenbeck finished his classes at Kennewick High School when he boarded the Ben Franklin Transit bus to head home Tuesday afternoon.

The Route 47 bus connects east and west Kennewick with a detour through the Southridge area.

His stepmother, Gabby Hollenbeck, was waiting to catch the same bus on Metaline Avenue. Jonathan normally gets off the bus at that stop when she’s climbing aboard to go to work.

But Tuesday the bus didn’t show up and the 34-year-old Kennewick woman starting seeing news alerts on her phone that a bus was broadsided by a potato truck on Highway 395.

Truck driver Zurisaday Moya-Jimenez, 33, of Umatilla, was behind the wheel of the semi heading north into Kennewick toward at 55 mph. The light turned red. He stepped on the brakes — and they didn’t work.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Thorson confirmed Wednesday that initial tests show the brakes on three of the truck’s four axles failed.

Witnesses told investigators that Moya-Jimenez did the only thing he could while piloting what had become a potato-filled battering ram. He laid on the horn in an attempt to warn other drivers that he was out of control, said Thorson.

Houston McDaniel, 15, of Kennewick, was riding the transit bus home when he saw the truck barrelling toward them, but didn’t think much of it.

“I didn’t quite realize that it would hit us until it did,” he told the Herald. “I closed my eyes on impact and when I opened them I was sitting on the floor, waist deep in potatoes.”

He was badly bruised but was not hospitalized.

Jonathan Hollenbeck was not as lucky.

The 15-year-old freshman was sitting behind the bus driver as the bus entered the intersection of Highway 395 and Hildebrand Boulevard just after 3 p.m.

He was on the side of the bus slammed by the truck and was the most seriously injured. Doctors later diagnosed him with a ruptured spleen, a broken pelvis and a concussion.

When Gabby saw the posts online of the crash and the crumpled remains of the bus, she knew it was Jonathan’s bus.

“I tried to locate Jonathan first,” she told the Herald. “I didn’t want to create any extra worries.”

“At the time, I was thinking he had a broken arm, maybe a broken leg, and that’s why he wasn’t able to get back to me (by text message),” Gabby said. “The more I thought about it, the more I felt like something was wrong.”

While she was trying to reach other relatives to go to the scene, investigators were trying to find Jonathan’s ID and contact school officials.

They found the boy’s uncle, who was listed as his emergency contact, who then reached Jonathan’s father, Aaron. Jonathan’s family arrived just as he was being taken into surgery.

“They had sedated him, and he was fighting it because he was out of it,” Gabby said.

Surgeons removed his spleen and, since then, he’s been in and out of consciousness.

“There were no complications with the surgery. It went really good,” she said. “The only thing that might cause him problems is the break in his pelvis, but the doctors are optimistic that it will heal just fine.”

The teen was moved out of intensive care earlier on Wednesday and will likely spend a few days in the hospital before he’s sent home.

The remains of the Ben Franklin bus are at the district’s transit center. Kurt Workman, a spokesman for the agency said it will cost about $424,000 to replace the bus.

“Really our concern is for the safety of our driver and the passengers on the bus,” he said. “Our hearts go out to the people that were hurt, but we’re grateful it wasn’t worse.”

The female bus driver and two other passengers also were checked at area hospitals but not admitted.

The investigation is continuing, Thorson said. The semi was part of a fleet of trucks owned by a private company, and troopers are examining the vehicle maintenance inspection reports.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Brakes on 3 axles failed before potato truck slammed transit bus."