FedEx Truck Crosses Interstate 5 Median, Strikes Student Charter Bus Near Orland — 10 Killed, 34 Injured

What Happened

At approximately 5:40 p.m. on April 10, 2014, a FedEx Freight tractor-trailer — a 2007 Volvo pulling two 28-foot trailers — was traveling southbound on Interstate 5 in the right lane near milepost 26 in Glenn County, California. According to the CHP’s year-long investigation, the truck gradually drifted left into the passing lane, continued through the center median, and crossed into northbound traffic without the driver applying the brakes or taking any evasive steering action.

The truck struck a charter motorcoach operated by Silverado Stages, which was carrying 44 high school students and chaperones northbound. The students were from Southern California schools and were traveling to Humboldt State University’s Spring Preview Day, a program designed to encourage low-income and first-generation college students to visit the campus. Both vehicles caught fire shortly after impact.

Ten people died in the crash: both the FedEx driver and the bus driver, five students, and three adult chaperones. Thirty-four additional passengers were injured, some critically. Survivors described escaping through emergency exits and breaking windows to get out as fire spread through the bus.

What Investigators Found

The California Highway Patrol spent approximately one year investigating the crash. In a 541-page report, the CHP concluded that the collision was caused by the FedEx driver’s violation of California Vehicle Code Section 22107, which prohibits unsafe turning movements. The CHP said investigators found no evidence that environmental factors, road conditions, or vehicle maintenance caused or contributed to the crash. The agency noted that some evidence was consistent with driver fatigue or sleepiness — including the straight section of roadway, the gradual departure angle of the tires, the absence of any attempt to brake or steer away, and an eyewitness report that the driver appeared slumped toward the driver’s window as the truck approached oncoming traffic. However, the CHP said it could not conclusively establish fatigue, sleepiness, or a medical condition as the cause because of the condition of the driver’s body.

The National Transportation Safety Board separately conducted its own year-long investigation. The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the crash was the FedEx driver’s inability to maintain control of the vehicle due to his unresponsiveness, for reasons that could not be established from the available information. The NTSB also noted that some of the passenger injuries and deaths may have been worsened by high impact forces, the post-crash fire, combustible fluids, limited evacuation options, and the absence of restraint use by passengers.

Following the investigation, the NTSB issued safety recommendations to both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, calling for enhanced fire resistance inside motorcoaches, additional emergency exits, mandatory pre-trip safety briefings on emergency exits, and expanded use of event data recorders in commercial vehicles. The board noted that access to onboard data might have allowed investigators to learn additional lessons from this crash and potentially help prevent similar ones in the future.

The Scale of the Loss

Legal Issues in Commercial Truck and Bus Crashes

Cases involving commercial vehicles like FedEx Freight trucks often involve far more legal complexity than ordinary passenger-vehicle crashes. The presence of a major corporate carrier, federal trucking regulations, driver records, maintenance histories, and onboard data all create additional layers of potential liability — and additional evidence that a skilled attorney can investigate and pursue.