A charter bus swerved and rolled over on a California highway, killing 3 and injuring 18

california bus rollover
A bus rolled down an embankment off Interstate 15 in North San Diego County Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, killing several people and injuring others.

Don Boomer/The San Diego Union-Tribune via Associated Press

  • A charter bus rolled over on a Southern California highway on Saturday, killing three people and injuring 18 others.

  • Authorities said one of the patients was in critical condition and three others suffered major injuries.

  • The bus driver apparently swerved and lost control of the bus, police said.

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A charter bus swerved on a rain-slicked Southern California highway and rolled down an embankment Saturday, killing three people and injuring 18 others, authorities said.

Several passengers were thrown from the bus, and one of the dead was trapped under the vehicle after it landed on its roof shortly after 10 a.m. off Interstate 15 in Pala Mesa, an unincorporated community about 45 miles north of San Diego, North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Choi said.

The bus' passengers included both adults and children, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"There were no seat belts on this bus," Choi said, though other officials told the Union-Tribune there were seatbelts but most were unused. Another person who died was trapped inside the bus, Choi added.

The wounded were taken to three hospitals with varying injuries, Choi said.

A California Highway Patrol officer told the Union-Tribune that one of the patients was in critical condition and three others suffered major injuries.

The passenger in critical condition was a five-year-old boy with a head injury, according to the newspaper.

charter bus rollover
Southbound traffic backed up after a bus rolled down an embankment off Interstate 15 in North San Diego County Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, killing several people and injuring others.

Don Boomer/The San Diego Union-Tribune via Associated Press

The bus driver, whose name has not been released, suffered minor injuries and remained at the scene. It was raining outside when the driver apparently swerved and lost control of the bus, Officer Mark Latulippe said, though he added it wasn't yet clear what effect the weather had on the accident.

The bus was going from Los Angeles to San Ysidro, the San Diego neighborhood just north of the US-Mexico border, the officer said.

Rescue crews were concerned that the bus may slide farther down the embankment and had to secure the vehicle before using ropes to pull up the victims to the roadside, Choi said. Crews planned to pull the bus from the embankment and recover the body pinned under it, he said.

The crash caused southbound traffic on I-15, a major route connecting San Diego to inland regions of Southern California, to back up for miles.

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