Mechanical Failure, Drugs, Alcohol Ruled Out In Fatal Bus Crash
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Federal investigators have ruled out mechanical failure as a cause of a fatal crash of a Greyhound bus that claimed the lives of two women earlier this week.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Jennifer Morrison, who is heading a federal National Transportation Safety Board team out of Washington, D.C., said no mechanical defects had been discovered during her team's search of the bus.
The use of drugs or alcohol by driver Gary Bonslater have also been ruled out by an investigation team from the California Highway Patrol.
The on-board camera has been recovered from the wrecked 2014 MCI motor coach, but the video had yet to be viewed by Thursday afternoon.
CHP spokesman Spencer Boyce said investigators were meticulously searching through vehicle, reports by survivors and Bonslater and other evidence in a search for the cause.
"We will not leave any stone unturned, and we don't have any preordained conclusions as we look at every aspect of this incident," Boyce told reporters. "Due to the magnitude of this collision a thorough and full investigation of this will simply take time."
Bonslater, who was briefly hospitalized, told investigators that he was tired and stopped for coffee about 30 miles before the bus plowed into safety barrels on U.S. 101 and flipped onto a center divider.
The force of the crash ejected Fely Olivera, 51, of San Francisco, and Maria De Jesus Ortiz Velasquez, 76, of Salinas, who both died at the scene. At least seven passengers were sent to area hospitals, with major to minor injuries, the CHP said. All are expected to survive.
The bus carrying 20 passengers left Los Angeles at 11:30 p.m. Monday with stops planned in Gilroy — where the driver got coffee — San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, said Lanesha Gipson, a Greyhound spokeswoman.
Bonslater began his shift in Los Angeles, and the company requires drivers to rest nine hours between trips, Gipson said. He has a clean driving record over the past three years and no history of drunken driving over the past 10 years, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Antonio Olivera, 25, said his mother was traveling home to San Francisco from Los Angeles, where she had visited her other two sons. Fely Olivera was a stay-at-home mom who loved to take care of her family and had immigrated to California in September, her son said.
"I thought she would die from getting sick and not from being ejected from a bus," Antonio Olivera said. "I haven't seen her body. I'm still hoping it's a different person."
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