NTSB: No Evidence Truck Was on Fire Before Colliding With Bus

Federal investigators said on Sunday that they haven't found any evidence that the FedEx truck was on fire when it hit a tour bus carrying high school students on a Northern California highway.

Ten people were killed when the delivery truck crossed a 60-foot median and hit a couple’s Nissan Altima and a charter bus carrying dozens of Southern California high school students on Thursday.

Mark Rosekind of the National Transportation Safety Board said authorities were still investigating the scene of the crash near Orland, but there was nothing indicating the truck was on fire while crossing the median or highway before the wreck.

"There is no evidence of pre-impact fire located at the accident scene, on the median or on the highway," Rosekind said.

The couple in the Altima, Bonnie and Joe Duran, said the truck had fire coming from the rear of the truck just before it sideswiped their car.

"Look to the left and there it was, coming through right at me at an angle and I could tell I wasn’t going to outrun him so I just kind of turned to the right and he hit me just like that," Bonnie Duran told NBC4.

Miles Hill disputed other witness accounts claiming the delivery truck was on fire before it collided with the bus.

“It was in perfect condition. It exploded upon impact with the bus," Hill said. "It was not on fire at all.

Video captured by the Durans' and dashcam footage from a California Highway Patrol vehicle were being used in the investigation, Rosekind said.

In the past five years, 109 crashes have occurred within a 10-mile radius of the wreck site. In all of those wrecks, Rosekind said a vehicle had never crossed the median before.

A final report could take up to a year before it is finished, but a preliminary report was expected to be released in about one month, Rosekind said. 

Eight of the 10 killed had been identified as Saturday afternoon.

Michael Myvette, 25-year-old Mattison Haywood, 18-year-old Adrian Castro, 26-year-old Arthur Arzola, 17-year-old Marisa Serrato, Denise Gomez, Ismael Jimenez and Jennifer Bonilla were among those killed when the bus they were riding collided head-on with a FedEx truck on Interstate 5 in Orland, Calif., on Thursday evening.

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