Last Updated on January 19, 2023 by C-CAR
The families of an engaged couple who were killed in the fiery crash of a bus carrying dozens of Los Angeles-area high school students to Humboldt State University for a campus tour unveiled a plaque Friday in conjunction with the one-year anniversary of the accident.
Michael Myvett and Mattison Haywood were chaperones aboard the bus that had 44 students aboard, along with one other chaperone and the driver.
The bus was being driven north on Interstate 5 in Orland on April 10, 2014, when it was struck by a southbound FedEx big rig whose driver veered off the freeway and crossed a lengthy grass median. The truck struck a Nissan Altima before plowing into the tour bus, which burst into flames.
Ten people died, including the drivers of both vehicles and five students.
The families of Myvett and Haywood unveiled a plaque honoring all of the crash victims during a news conference at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.
“We have had a year of tears, now we need to remember their joy,” said Debra Loyd, who raised Myvett.
The families have asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to install the plaque at the bus plaza. They also plan to make duplicate plaques available to each of the high schools that had a student who died in the crash, along with the city of Orland and Humboldt State University, where Myvett earned undergraduate and master’s degrees.
Myvett, who was a therapist for autistic children, and Haywood got engaged in Paris in December 2013.
The other victims of the crash were:
• Denise Gomez and Ismael Jimenez, the reigning homecoming queen and king at Animo Charter High School in Inglewood;
• Jennifer Bonilla, an honor student at Los Angeles Dorsey High School who recently had won a college scholarship and was considered a campus leader by school administrators;
• Adrian Castro, a popular El Monte High School football player who fellow students referred to as a positive role model;
• Marisa Serrato, a church-going student at Norte Vista High School in Riverside, and whose identical twin, Marisol, made the trip on a different bus and was not injured;
• bus driver Talalelei Lealao-Taiao;
• chaperone Arthur Arzola, 26, of Rancho Cucamonga, who was a college recruiter helping to lead the excursion to Humboldt State; and
• FedEx truck driver Tim Evans, 32, a lifelong resident of the Sacramento area who had married his high school sweetheart, fathered two daughters and helped coach their soccer and softball teams.
