Nine Killed After Charter Bus Careens Off Icy Oregon Interstate

[News_Editor]

Nine killed after charter bus careens off icy Oregon interstate < br />

2013-01-01 00:28:59 GMT+7 (ICT)

PENDLETON, OREGON (BNO NEWS) -- Nine people were killed Sunday and more than two dozen others were injured when the driver of a charter bus lost control on an ice-covered interstate in northern Oregon and rolled down an embankment, state police said. Several people were seriously injured.

The accident happened just before 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday when the driver of a passenger bus lost control on the snow and ice-covered westbound lanes of Interstate 84 near milepost 227, approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) east of the city of Pendleton in Umatilla County.

"The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment an estimated couple hundred feet before coming to a rest," said Lieutenant Gregg Hastings, a spokesman for the Oregon State Police. He said the charter bus was carrying an estimated 40 people, although no exact figure was released.

Nine passengers were killed in the accident while 26 others, including the bus driver, were transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. Five of the injured were transported by fixed-wing medical aircraft to a secondary hospital because of the severity of the injuries while the other victims remained at the Pendleton hospital.

It was not immediately clear what caused Sunday's deadly bus accident, but area roads were slick because of snow and ice. "The bus driver survived the crash but investigators have not be able to speak to this person because of severity of injuries and medical care," Hastings said.

The spokesman said the bus belonged to Mi Joo Tour & Travel which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. "The bus reportedly was en-route on a return trip from Las Vegas, Nevada to Vancouver, British Columbia," he said, giving no details about the nationalities of the people on board.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2013-01-01

[NeverSure]

That is a nasty stretch of road in the Winter. Even though a US interstate freeway, there's only so much you can do with a very steep and twisty mountain where the grade climbs about a mile in elevation. After a snow, it will be quickly plowed and sanded, but still it's treacherous for those without a lot of experience on snow and ice.

The mountains are called The Blue Mountains and must be crossed to get from Western Oregon such as Portland to far Eastern Oregon or to Boise, Idaho and beyond.

What baffles me is why they took that route. Las Vegas is way South, almost due East of Los Angeles, Calif. The only reasonable thing would have been to avoid all of that cold and mountain and taken a safer faster route back to LA and then straight North on Interstate 5 all the way to Vancouver BC where the temperatures are moderated by the ocean, and any mountains are far less severe. It makes absolutely no sense. They were taking a longer and much more difficult route.

Condolences to all.