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6 People killed in Greyhound Bus Accident near Fresno.

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.

FRESNO, Calif. — A Greyhound bus carrying 47 people and traveling to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley on Thursday, killing six and injuring many others.

California Highway Patrol Officer Michelle Sigmond said the bus driver swerved to try to avoid another crash involving an overturned SUV and slammed into a concrete center divider and then struck another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. just outside downtown Fresno. The bus went down an embankment, hit a eucalyptus tree and came to rest on a freeway off-ramp with its front end smashed and tree branches jutting into the vehicle.

Twisted pieces of metal, broken glass and torn clothing littered the ground around the accident scene.

Arlen Snider, who had been traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento to visit his mother, said he was asleep in the middle section of the bus when the crash occurred. She awoke to the smell of smoke and injured passengers all around her.

“I woke up on the floor of the bus and started helping people off the bus,” Snider, who escaped uninjured, said after arriving in Sacramento’s bus terminal Thursday morning.

In addition to the six dead – four women and two men, including the driver – several people were hurt with injuries that ranged from critical to bruises and cuts, said CHP Officer Kirk Arnold.

It’s unclear if all of the fatalities were on the bus.

“I had just woke up and I heard a boom once, and a boom again and the next thing I know we were down this embankment,” Linda Gee, a passenger on the bus, told KMPH-TV in Fresno.

“I’m alive and I thank god I’m alive,” she said. “There was just bleeding everywhere.”

The bus departed Los Angeles late Wednesday and stopped in Fresno before continuing on its route to Sacramento. It was on its way to Madera for one of about eight scheduled stops when the crash occurred, according to Greyhound spokeswoman Bonnie Bastian.

A relief bus was sent to take nine passengers who wanted to continue on to their destinations.

Northbound lanes of Highway 99, a major route through the San Joaquin Valley, have been closed since the crash.

Fresno Bus Accident Attorney Website

Tags: accident, accident scene, attorney, attorney website, Bonnie Bastian, Bus, Bus Accident, Bus Accidents, bus driver, Calif., california, california accident attorney, california highway patrol, california personal injury attorney, california personal injury lawyer, catastrophic injuries, Central Valley, chp, Editorial, FRESNO, greyhound bus, greyound bus, highway patrol officer, Joaquin Valley, Linda Gee, Los Angeles, News, Officer Kirk Arnold, Officer Michelle Sigmond, Other Motor Vehicle Accidents, passenger, personal injuries, Personal Injury, Personal Injury, personal injury law firm, sacramento, SUV, SUV Accident, traffic accident, traffic accidents, Truck Accidents, Vehicle Passenger Accidents, Wrongful Death, wrongful death attorney

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Full post as published by California Personal Injury Law Blog on July 22, 2010 (boomark / email).