2 killed in California bus crash were bound for Pasco

A day after a bus headed to Pasco was involved in a horrific fatal bus crash on Highway 99 near Livingston, Calif., the four who died have been identified and survivors have voiced concerns about the bus company.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke identified the four victims Wednesday morning.

Jose Morales Bravo, a 68-year-old man from Avalon, Calif., died in the crash. His wife is being treated in a Modesto Hospital.

A couple from Mexico on their way to visit their daughter in Washington also died.

They were Fernando Ramirez, 57, and his wife, Petra Carillo Ruiz, 64. The couple were traveling to Pasco and then on to Quincy with their young niece. Jennifer Rivera, 12, of Mexico, survived the wreck and told KCRA TV she was traveling to Quincy to live with an aunt and attend school.

The fourth victim was 38-year-old Jaime De Los Santos from Tijuana.

The Merced County Coroner’s Office said families of the deceased passengers have been notified. It declined to identify the Washington relatives. The Pasco Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and Franklin County Coroner told the Tri-City Herald that they were not asked to contact local relatives.

The charter bus driven by Mario David Vasquez, 57, of Los Angeles, crashed into a large freeway sign one mile before the Hammatt Avenue exit on Highway 99 early Tuesday morning. The bus was carrying 27 people, including Vasquez, and was traveling from Mexico to Pasco.

The pole from the sign tore through the middle of the bus from the impact. The wreckage closed down northbound Highway 99 for most of Tuesday.

Initially, investigators reported five deaths.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday morning, California Highway Patrol Capt. Brian Hawkins said the large, chaotic scene included many victims who suffered various injuries and were taken to multiple hospitals in different cities. That led to confusion about the exact numbers of people killed and seriously injured.

“I wish it was zero,” Hawkins said about the number of deaths.

Hawkins declined to give many details about the investigation of the crash, saying he refused to speculate. The investigation will take several months.

A spokeswoman for Doctors Medical Center in Modesto said Wednesday morning that two crash victims were in serious condition, one was in fair condition, one was in good condition and one was discharged.

Vasquez, the driver, suffered major injuries, but it was unclear what his condition was Wednesday.

The DMV confirmed Vasquez’s license was valid the day of the crash. It was “disqualified” on Jan. 24, 2015, but a DMV employee declined to elaborate and didn’t note any suspensions. It’s not clear when his license was revalidated.

A National Transportation Safety Board official who spoke at the news conference Wednesday said investigators were unsure if the bus had an electronic control module on it, which records data, because of how old the bus was. It was a 1998 model.

Don Karol, a senior accident investigator with the NTSB, said the federal organization will conduct a fact-finding mission to make safety recommendations and won’t investigate the cause of of the crash. About 10 NTSB investigators will be in Merced County for about a week.

Autobuses Coordinados USA, Inc., the company that owns the bus that crashed, advertises that it travels between Mexico and Washington with stops including Los Angeles, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento and Oregon. The bus was in Los Angeles late Monday and was scheduled to make its next stop in Livingston on Tuesday before the crash, according to the CHP.

At the downtown Fresno office on Wednesday morning, an employee for Autobuses Coordinados said she wasn’t authorized to speak about the accident, which she had learned of just a few hours earlier.

During the news conference, Hawkins said Autobuses Coordinados provided transportation for the survivors to their final destinations.

However, at least one survivor, Nakia Coleman, refused to get on the bus because she was traumatized. Instead, the company sent a van to take Coleman to Marysville, Calif., where family members met her and will take her home to Pasco.

When Coleman’s 19-year-old son Manuel Espinoza went to the company’s office in Pasco, he received no information, she said.

Coleman said the company should be doing more to help the crash survivors and their families.

“I raised hell with them,” Coleman said. “I told them, ‘You guys don’t know what we just went through.’ They should be doing a lot more.”

Coleman lost her her entire life’s belongings in the crash, including her wedding ring and her Jack Russell terrier, Mia, who was traveling in her cage in the cargo hold.

An inspection report conducted in California on April 28 shows the bus involved in Tuesday’s crash had been cited for three violations, including having prohibited aisle seats; parts and accessories violations; and a maintenance violation, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation records.

Online reviews of the company show many customers have been displeased with their trips.

One displeased customer is Abby, from McFarland, Calif, who asked the Merced Sun-Star not to publish her last name.

She and her family took the bus in July 2015 from Oregon to Delano, Calif. The air conditioning didn’t work and the company oversold seats on the bus, she said.

“The driver was driving insanely fast around curves,” Abby said in an interview with the Sun-Star. “He absolutely didn’t care.”

Before heading into the mountains at about 5 p.m., the bus broke down. Passengers, including children and senior citizens, waited in the bus, on the side of the road, with no air conditioning, until 8 a.m. the next morning, she said. They were given Carl’s Jr. hamburgers and told to wait until another bus came, but a bus didn’t come.

“I never want to get on another one of those buses again,” she said.

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 5:46 PM with the headline "2 killed in California bus crash were bound for Pasco."