HACIENDA HEIGHTS >> California Highway Patrol investigators are unable to determine why the driver of a FedEx vehicle veered over the median on Interstate 5 and into oncoming traffic in the April 10, 2014, Orland bus crash that killed 10 and injured more than 30 others, the agency said Friday.
After a 13-month investigation, officers found that “an unsafe turning movement” caused the fatal collision between the FedEx tractor-trailer and a tour bus carrying dozens of Southern California high school students, said CHP Sgt. Nate Parsons during a news conference at the Hacienda Heights Community Center.
“(The FedEx driver) could have fell asleep. He could have had an undiagnosed medical condition,” said Parsons, who led CHP’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team for the incident. “We were not able to prove either.”
• Video: CHP statement on investigation into Orland bus crash
Among those killed were El Monte High School senior Adrian Castro and University of La Verne graduate student Arthur Arzola, a chaperone for the trip. Four other Los Angeles-area high school students, two other adult chaperones and both drivers were also killed.
The tour bus was one of three bringing students to Humboldt State University for a prospective student event. The other two buses were not involved in the crash.
Investigators looked at environmental, mechanical and human factors involved in the collision. They also evaluated the accident history of the area over a seven-year period, Parsons said, and determined that the roadway had “a lower than average” collision history.
“We had only nine crashes in that time span,” he said, adding that the traffic volumes of the area were not high enough to warrant a median barrier.
Neither vehicle had any mechanical malfunctions before or after the incident, Parsons said. However, investigators did not have access to the vehicles’ engine control modules, which were destroyed in the fire that broke out immediately after the collision.
The driver had neither drugs nor alcohol in their system and both were reportedly in good health. The FedEx driver slept between eight and 10 hours the night before the collision and had been working for about eight hours at the time.
Cellphone records also showed the drivers were not using their phones at the time of the collision, Parsons added.
Despite the findings announced Friday, Sineva Hosea, 19, a former Long Beach Polytechnic High School student who survived the crash, said she was hoping for more answers.
“I know they’re doing the best that they can,” said Hosea, who is now a freshman at Humboldt State. “I just hope soon we’ll find closure to this.”
• Photos: 10 Killed in Orland Bus Crash
The National Transportation Safety Board, which has not yet completed a separate investigation into the crash, released documents earlier this month that included unconfirmed witness accounts of the crash.
One passenger of the charter bus said he saw the FedEx driver with his head down and slumped toward the door immediately before the crash. Another driver on the highway said the truck’s left turn signal lit up before it moved from the southbound No. 2 lane to the No. 1 lane and drifted across the median.
Parsons said investigators could not prove the witness report and that while there was an indication that the driver may have been making a lane change, the vehicle’s movement does not support that idea.
“The vehicle traveled in a shallow drift across the roadway,” he said. “He crossed the median at a shallow angle with no evasive action.”
Some sleep studies did show that if someone did fall asleep or had a medical issue, the way in which the vehicle traveled through the median “would not likely have woken them up,” Parsons said.
