ORLAND-
Newly released 911 tapes reveal the true panic felt April 10 after a FedEx truck slammed head-on with a charter bus along Interstate 5 in Orland.
“We’re off the bus. The bus is on fire,” one passenger said.
The bus was full of students and chaperons from Los Angeles to CSU Humboldt. Ten people were killed in the crash.
“We have a massive fire,” another caller said. “We have all kinds of students out on the highway here from a tour bus.”
Highway Patrol used scene simulations to try to gather data that may have otherwise been lost when the data recorders on both the bus and big rig were damaged. Investigators used what the called “clone vehicles,” a 2007 FedEx trailer and a 2014 tour bus, for several different tests.
Marin Austin, Ian McDonald and Sam Cohen contributed to this report.
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