Bus crash on Interstate 5 injures dozens

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Greyhound bus passenger tried to seize the steering wheel from the driver at it cruised down Interstate 5 Friday afternoon, forcing the bus into a ditch and injuring all 38 aboard, police said.

Police arrested a suspect after searching 30 acres of nearby brush and trees for more than an hour. The man was being held in the Sacramento County jail on attempted murder charges. Investigators were trying to confirm his identity.

The bus, en route from Seattle to Los Angeles, had just passed the Sacramento airport when a man grabbed the steering wheel at about 2 p.m. and tried to drive the bus into the median, Sacramento County sheriff's Lt. John McGinness said. The bus was traveling 60-65 mph at the time.

The male driver fought to keep control but overcorrected and the bus plunged into a 6-foot drainage ditch in a rural area off Southbound I-5.

Though the bus remained upright, several windows smashed, seats were torn from their sockets and part of its front ripped off.

The scuffle between the assailant and driver lasted only seconds, said Keith Alvis, a passenger from Seattle who helped other passengers get out of the bus.

''We didn't know what was going on until it was too late and we were already in the ditch,'' Alvis said, adding that passengers stayed calm throughout the incident.

Passenger Trent Pursley, 23, of Temecula, said he felt lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries.

''God was watching over me, that's for sure,'' said Pursley, who saw a girl in the back of the bus get tossed toward the front.

The man apparently got on the bus in Redding and planned to get off in Stockton, Sacramento County sheriff's Lt. John McGinness said.

A passenger sitting near the man said he had been talking to himself and muttering about a gunman coming to get him, McGinness said.

A Life Flight helicopter took at least two passengers with serious injuries to the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Sixteen were taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The identities and conditions of the injured were not immediately released. Those that refused treatment were taken to the Greyhound station in Sacramento and put on another bus.

The driver, who picked up the bus in Redding, was being treated for head injuries at the scene.

Greyhound spokesman Marcus Clark said the driver should be commended for trying to keep control of the bus. Clark declined to release any information on him.

The bus was not equipped with passenger seat belts, and was not required to have them under California law, CHP Sgt. Tom Allen said. The driver had a seatbelt but it was not known if he was wearing it, Allen said.

Several lanes of southbound I-5 were closed briefly after the incident.