Bus rider details terror of crash

Associated Press

YUCAIPA, Calif.

The bus full of tourists from Mexico was winding its way down the mountain from the ski-resort town of Big Bear when it quickly picked up speed. The driver shouted to call 911 — the brakes had failed.

As passengers frantically tried to get a cellphone signal, a group of girls shrieked and prayed as others cried and shielded their heads as they careened downhill.

The bus rear-ended a Saturn sedan, swerved, flipped and slid on its side. A Ford pickup in the oncoming lane ran into it, righting the bus and tossing passengers out shattered windows before it came to a halt.

“Everything happened so fast. When the bus spun, everything flew, even the people,” said Gerardo Barrientos, who was next to his girlfriend one minute and then scrambling out of the wreckage the next moment to find her and a friend in the highway, injured but alive among the carnage.

Seven people were killed and dozens injured Sunday in the accident 80 miles east of Los Angeles. On Monday, families from Tijuana sought loved ones in hospitals and investigators searched the scene for evidence and scrutinized the company’s safety history.

Government records showed the bus, operated by Scapadas Magicas of National City, Calif., had 22 safety violations in inspections over a year — including brake, windshield and tire problems.

The crash littered State Route 38 with body parts, winter clothing and debris. The bus stood across both lanes with its windows blown out, front end crushed and part of the roof peeled back like a tin can.

“I saw many people dead. There are very horrendous images in my head, things I don’t want to think about,” Barrientos said as he and girlfriend Lluvia Ramirez, who both work at a government hospital in Tijuana, waited outside the Loma Linda University Medical Center emergency room for word on a friend who broke her neck.

After the crash, Barrientos, who was uninjured, moved his friends to safety and then tried to help the bus driver, whose hand was pinned between rocks.

The bus driver, Norberto B. Perez, approximately 52, of San Ysidro, was in serious condition, authorities said.