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8A – Daily News – Friday, July 23, 2010 Authorities seek cause of deadly Calif. bus crash FRESNO (AP) — Authorities were investigating the cause of a deadly crash Thursday in Califor- nia’s Central Valley that killed six people and seriously injured nine others when a Greyhound bus slammed into an overturned SUV. The bus, carrying 31 passen- gers on a route from Los Angeles to Sacramento, struck the SUV in front of it, skidded into a concrete center divider and clipped another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. a few miles from downtown Fresno, California Highway Patrol chief Jim Abrames said. The bus went off the right shoulder of the highway and down a 15-foot embankment before hitting a eucalyptus tree and coming to rest on a freeway off-ramp with its front end smashed and tree branches jutting into the vehicle. Authorities were inspecting mangled pieces of metal, broken glass and torn clothing scattered around the wreckage in search of clues about the crash. They also intended to examine data record- ed onboard the bus. It could take months, however, before a final report is completed, Abrames said. Arlan Snider, who was travel- ing from Phoenix to Sacramento to visit his mother, said he was asleep in the middle section of the bus when the crash occurred. He awoke to the smell of smoke and injured passengers around him. ‘‘I woke up on the floor of the bus and started helping people off the bus,’’ Snider, 41, who escaped uninjured, said after arriving at Sacramento’s bus terminal. The six dead people included four women and two men. Three of the women had been traveling in the dark-blue SUV that had overturned and blocked both lanes, said Abrames, who heads the CHP’s Central California divi- sion. Twenty-one people were rushed to hospitals for treatment, and nine had moderate to critical injuries. The bus driver was identified as James Jewett, 57, of Sacramen- to. He died instantly of massive injuries, said Fresno County Coroner Dr. David Hadden. ‘‘The front of the bus was destroyed and the front part of the bus was pushed into his driver’s seat,’’ Hadden said. The three women who died in the SUV were identified as Stephenie Cordoba, 20, and Vanessa Gonzalez, 19, both of Fresno, and Sylvia Lopez Garay, 18, of nearby Dinuba. Officials State mulls loan for Modoc SACRAMENTO (AP) — California finance officials on Friday will consider whether to loan between $4 million and $12.5 million to rural Modoc County, which may be unable to pay its bills. The trouble stems from the county’s practice of funding its hospital using money that was intended for other pur- poses, such as education and transportation projects. Dan Macsay, chairman of the Modoc County Board of Supervi- sors, said the county in California’s far northeastern corner has hired a bankruptcy attorney in case it needs to declare itself insolvent. ‘‘We don’t want to go bankrupt,’’ Macsay said Thursday. ‘‘It does nothing for us — it doesn’t help the state, it does- n’t help anybody. But what we’re doing is preparing for the worst.’’ He said it’s unclear whether the county, which had a pop- ulation of 9,777 in January, will have enough money to pay expenses for the next fiscal year, considering it must repay millions in debt. On Friday, the state treasurer, controller and others will discuss proposals to help Modoc County stay afloat. The state has its own financial troubles and is facing a $19 bil- lion deficit. The county has requested a loan from the state’s Pooled Money Investment Board, which oversees a portfolio that was worth $69.4 billion as of June. State officials also want Modoc County to avoid bankruptcy. ‘The front of the bus was destroyed and the front part of the bus was pushed into his driver’s seat’ Fresno County Coroner Dr. David Hadden did not say who was driving. The passengers who died on the bus were identified as Epifa- nia Solis, 60, of Madera, and Tomas Ponce, 79, of Mexico. Ponce and his wife, Sinforosa Ponce, 77, were heading to Merced to visit relatives. She was hospitalized with multiple injuries, the coroner said. The Chevy Trailblazer that overturned in the fast lane also landed at the bottom of the embankment, its roof partially caved in and doors crushed. Hadden said his office planned toxicology reports on the drivers of the bus and SUV, with results expected in about a week. There were no obvious signs that any- one had been drinking, such as bottles in the vehicles, he said. The most seriously injured patients were taken to Communi- ty Regional Medical Center in Fresno, where attending surgeon John Bilello said one man remained in critical condition. The injuries included pelvic frac- tures and collapsed lungs. ‘‘They were in serious pain when they got here. There was definitely some emotional shock and fear,’’ Bilello said. The bus departed Los Angeles late Wednesday and stopped in Fresno before continuing on its route to Sacramento with 35 pas- sengers on board, according to Greyhound officials. It was on its way to Madera for one of about eight scheduled stops when the crash occurred. The CHP inspected mainte- nance records and a sampling of buses at the company’s Los Angeles and Sacramento termi- nals earlier this year, but the bus in Thursday’s crash was not among those checked, Abrames said. The agency has not located any prior inspection records for the bus, but all three vehicles involved in the crash have been impounded and will be inspected as part of the investigation, he said. Buses operated by Greyhound Lines Inc. have been involved in 139 accidents nationwide over the past two years that included fatal- ities, injuries or vehicles that had to be towed, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Agency spokeswoman Can- dice Tolliver could not immedi- ately say how that record com- pared to other bus companies. A separate database compiled by the agency showed 14 Califor- nia accidents involving Grey- hound buses over the past 30 months. Six resulted in injuries, but there were no fatalities. The Dallas-based company had a ‘‘satisfactory’’ safety record, the highest of three levels, according to the agency. Jewett had worked for Grey- hound since 1978 and was an excellent driver with a clean dri- ving record, company spokesman Timothy Stokes said. State Department of Motor Vehicles records show Jewett received a ticket in 2008 for fail- ing to register a vehicle. Bell seeks resignations of high-paid officials BELL (AP) — The City Council in this small, blue- collar suburb of Los Ange- les intends to ask three administrators whose salaries total more than $1.6 million to resign Thursday or face possible firing. The officials include Chief Administrative Offi- cer Robert Rizzo, who earns $787,637 a year — nearly twice the pay of President Barack Obama — for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Ange- les County. The others are Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, who makes $376,288 a year, and Police Chief Randy Adams, whose annual salary of $457,000 is 50 percent more than that of Los Angeles Police Chief Char- lie Beck. Councilman Luis Artiga said the panel planned to request the resignations during a closed-door, after- noon meeting that was called to consider dismiss- ing the officials. A public hearing is scheduled for Monday. Rizzo was hired at an annual salary of $72,000 a year in 1993, and the coun- cil rapidly increased that amount over the years. His most recent raise boosted his salary more than $84,000 a year. ‘‘All right, somebody wasn’t paying attention to that,’’ said Artiga, who joined the council a little more than a year ago. ‘‘But we are acting on that today.’’ Adams was recently hired at a relatively high salary, while Spaccia was paid $102,310 when she was hired in 2003 and received hefty raises since then, Artiga said. All three officials under question have contracts that protect them from being fired without cause. If they refuse to quit, the city might have to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy out their contracts. Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked anger in the city of fewer than 40,000 residents. Cen- sus figures from 2008 show 17 percent of the popula- tion lives in poverty. Enraged residents have staged protests demanding the firings and started a recall campaign against some council members. ‘‘Woo-hoo, the salaries. Wow. What can I say? I think that’s unbelievable,’’ Christina Caldera, a 20- year resident of the city, said as she stood in line at a food bank. Caldera, who is strug- gling after recently losing her job as a drug and alco- hol counselor, said she gen- erally was satisfied with the way the city was being run but felt high-paid officials should take a pay cut. ‘‘What are they doing with all that money?’’ she asked. ‘‘Maybe they could put it into more jobs for other people.’’ Attempts to leave mes- sages with city representa- tives seeking comment from Rizzo and Spaccia failed because their voice- mails were full. A message left for Adams was not immediately returned. The council members are paid well themselves — four of the five members, including Artiga, each make about $100,000 a year for the part-time work. The county district attor- ney’s office is investigating to determine if the council’s high salaries violate any state laws. The City Council also intends to review city salaries, including those of its own members, accord- ing to Artiga and Mayor Oscar Hernandez. ‘‘We are going to ana- lyze all the city payrolls and possibly will revise all the salaries of the city,’’ Artiga said. However, both men said they considered the City Council pay to be justified. ‘‘We work a lot. I work with my community every day,’’ the mayor said, as he shook hands with and embraced people leaving the food bank Thursday. Spring/Summer Veggies Buy 1 get 1 FREE Garden Center Red Bluff 766 Antelope Blvd. (Next to the Fairground) 527-0886