Last Updated on January 17, 2023 by C-CAR
LOS ANGELES >> More than a year after a fiery wreck between a FedEx semi-truck and a charter bus killed 10, including five high school students, authorities are expected to address the biggest remaining question on Friday: What caused the crash?
The California Highway Patrol is set to release the results of its 13-month investigation at an afternoon news conference after the agency meets with family members of those killed in the April 2014 head-on collision in Orland, about 100 miles north of Sacramento.
The dead were five high school students from the Los Angeles area, three chaperones, and the drivers of the FedEx tractor-trailer and the bus. The bus was full of prospective Humboldt State University students heading for a campus visit.
What has been unclear is why the semi gradually veered across the interstate median and into oncoming traffic. Investigators previously said they found no evidence that the truck driver, 32-year-old Tim Evans, attempted to slow down or swerve.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is conducting a separate investigation, released documents earlier this month showing Evans had no drugs or alcohol in his system and was reportedly in good health.
Those records also included uncorroborated witness accounts offering insight into the investigation.
One passenger seated three rows behind the bus driver said he saw Evans with his head down and slumped toward the door immediately before the crash. Another driver on the highway said the semi’s left turn signal lit up before it changed lanes and drifted across the median.
A couple in a sedan sideswiped by the truck before the crash reported seeing flames coming out of one of its trailers, but board investigators found no physical evidence to support that.
The National Transportation Safety Board could release its final report this summer, an agency spokesman said last week.
