ORLAND, Calif. — Just before a FedEx semitruck collided with a tour bus full of students and chaperones on Interstate 5 in California, it clipped a car driven by a Lake Tapps couple.
Joe Duran and Bonnie Duran were driving a sedan northbound on I-5 Thursday when a FedEx truck heading south careened toward them, struck their rental car and crashed into the oncoming bus that was carrying high school students from Southern California. The bus and truck quickly were engulfed in flames.
Five students from the Los Angeles area, three chaperones, and the truck and bus drivers died in the crash about 100 miles north of Sacramento. Dozens were injured, some critically.
Bonnie Duran, who was driving, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that flames were coming from the lower rear of the truck cab.
"I just looked to the left and there it was coming through right at me at an angle. I can tell I wasn't going to outrun him so I just kind of turned to the right and he hit me," she said.
"It was in flames as it came through the median... It wasn't like the whole thing was engulfed it was coming up wrapping around him."
Joe and Bonnie Duran explained to their son Joshua Duran how they survived.
“He yelled at her. She was able to pull out of the way just in time to miss the head-on. She pulled out just enough to get sideswiped and tore apart the whole back end of her car,” Joshua Duran said.
KNBC reported the Durans will be interviewed Saturday by the California Highway Patrol before flying home to Seattle. A CHP spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators have not mentioned the possibility that the truck was on fire before the crash. Police also initially said the sedan and truck were traveling in the same direction when the truck swerved to avoid the sedan.
KIRO
