$25K Donated To LAUSD To Benefit Families Of Victims Of Northern California Bus Crash
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A $25,000 donation was presented Tuesday to the Los Angeles Unified School District to benefit families of students and others who were killed or injured in a fiery Northern California bus crash while heading for a tour of Humboldt State University.
Ten people died in the April 10, 2014, crash on the Golden State (5) Freeway near Orland. Nine of the people who died were aboard the bus, which was carrying 44 Los Angeles-area students and three chaperones to the university for a campus tour.
The driver of the bus was among the dead, along with the driver of the southbound FedEx truck that crossed into the northbound lanes and slammed into the bus.
"Last April, the Los Angeles Unified School District and several other school districts, staff and families experienced a great tragedy, the fatal bus crash with the college-bound students on their way to Humboldt University," LAUSD board chairman Richard Vladovic said. "What a tragedy."
Vladovic hailed the School Police Department and the Friends of Safe Schools Association "for rallying together to start a donation drive for these families who lost children who were there and going to college."
Sgt. James Ream of the school police said the fatal crash "is still very, very close in our hearts and our minds."
"We haven't forgotten," Ream told the board. "Right after that bus accident, that tragedy occurred, many members of the L.A. School Police Department would have loved to have responded up there to do what they could to help but obviously we couldn't. They took it upon themselves to start collecting money."
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
