Suspected bus owner among eight dead in bus crash

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Suspected bus owner among eight dead in bus
crash, critically injured driver arrested
Monday, Oct 6 2008, 3:45 pm
By Andrea Koskey, Robert Parsons and Howard Yune/Appeal-Democrat
Authorities named the eight people killed Sunday in a charter bus wreck in Colusa
County, but much about the accident remains unclear – including the backgrounds of the
bus driver and the bus company.
The California Highway Patrol this morning released the names of five women and one
man who died when the bus overturned on Lone Star Road on its way to the Colusa
Casino Resort. Stephen Bell, the assistant chief of CHP's Northern Division, identified
among the dead as 68-year-old Daniel Cobb Sr. of Sacramento and Modesto, who is
believed to have owned the bus.
Also killed were five Sacramento women – Lou Her, 68; Muang Saephanh, 68; Khou
Yang, 67; Meuay Saelee, 74; and Fin Saechae, 64. In addition, killed were 85-year-old
Xee Vang, a male whom is believed to be from Sacramento and 60-year-old Ma Vang,
whose hometown and gender are not immediately known.
Along with the eight killed, 35 people were injured in the crash.
Initially, 10 passengers were believed to have been killed, but the CHP later revised the
number of dead.
CHP placed the bus driver, 52-year-old Quintin Joey Watts, under arrest on suspicion of
felony driving under the influence. It was not immediately known whether Watts was
under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both, Bell said.
Watts was gravely injured in the wreck and was being treated at Woodland Memorial
Hospital.
"He's in extremely critical condition – if he makes it," CHP Officer Bob Kays said today.
PUBLICATION: WILLOWS JOURNAL.COM
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Watts has a felony criminal record but has no listed DUI convictions in California,
according to records from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Watts' most recent conviction was June 20, 2007, when he pleaded guilty to being a felon
in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison, but was given credit
for 132 days for time served and good behavior. He was paroled Dec. 18, 2007.
In 1998, Watts was convicted of possession of marijuana for sale and possession of a
destructive device. He was sentenced to two years in state prison and was paroled after
serving one. Watts was convicted of check fraud, credit card theft and distributing phony
telecommunication devices in 1996. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison
on those charges and was paroled after eight months.
Investigators are struggling to unravel the bus's murky recent history. The Texas license
plates it carried were invalid, and no federal Department of Transportation registration
number could be found, according to Kays.
Watts had a commercial driver’s license in California but lacked state certification
required to drive a passenger bus, Bell told reporters at the CHP’s Williams bureau.
The bus was painted with the Greyhound colors and the company's name was on the side
of the coach, but Landreth said the vehicle was sold two years ago to Valley Transit
Company.
However, a Valley Transit representative said the bus did not belong to the firm.
Other media reports linked the bus to Cobb – one of the dead – and an outfit named
Cobbs Bus Service. California Public Utilities Commission records place the business in
Modesto, with a Sacramento mailing address.
An online classified ad at Kijiji.com in Cobb’s name, dated Thursday, asked for a charter
bus driver and promised “all work is within 100 mile radius.” The voice-mail box was
full at the phone number listed.
The bus carried 42 passengers from Sacramento to Colusa Casino Resort, located on
Highway 45 three miles north of Colusa, Landreth said.
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All the passengers were believed to be from the Sacramento area and all are believed to
have been found, according to Bell, who said officers combed the crash site with
helicopter-mounted infrared sensors overnight in search of more passengers.
Landreth said many of the passengers are of Asian descent, and officers said language
barriers are slowing the process of identifying and interviewing survivors. Twelve of the
injured have not yet been identified, Bell said.
The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, south of Highway 20 between Colusa
and Williams at Lone Star and Abel roads, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Pat
Landreth. A witness told CHP the bus, traveling north on Lone Star, lost control, flipped
into the air, cartwheeled and landed in a ditch.
The witness, off-duty sheriff's Sgt. Merced Corona, told Landreth the bus swerved to one
side of the road, overcorrected to the other side before it flipped and rolled. He said
"several bodies were thrown from the bus." Skid marks the bus left behind during the
accident stretched nearly half a mile, according to Clader, the CHP spokeswoman.
Corona then assisted with rescue efforts that continued into the night.
"He was pulling bodies from the mud before they drowned," Landreth said. "It all
happened right in front of him."
Corona told the CHP no other vehicles were on the road.
Water and mud were standing in the ditch where the bus came to a stop on its wheels.
The roof of the vehicle was caved in, windows were broken and the body of the bus was
mangled.Rescue crews searched the surrounding fields for additional victims with
flashlights Sunday night. Lone Star Road remained closed until about 5:30 a.m. today as
investigators finished their work and a crane lifted the wreckage from the site, to be taken
to a yard in Williams.
Marshall said a master mutual aid plan was enacted for the bus crash. Emergency
personnel from Glenn, Lake, Yolo and Sutter counties responded to the scene.
Victims were transported by helicopter and ambulance to area hospitals in Chico,
Woodland, Oroville, Sacramento, Marysville and Roseville.
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The two-lane road where the crash occurred cuts through rice fields in central Colusa
County. The pavement and skies were clear and dry at the time of the incident. The road
has gravel shoulders and ditches on each side.
Landreth said it was legal for the bus to be on Lone Star Road, a popular route for
motorists, including bus drivers, heading to Colusa Casino Resort from the Sacramento
area.
Landreth recalled one other major bus accident that left four injured.
According to the Appeal-Democrat archives, 39 people were on board a Greyhound bus
headed to Sacramento from Redding on Interstate 5 on July 1, 2005, when it ran off the
road.
Landreth said there were several differences between that incident and Sunday's crash.
He said Sunday's crash was on a smaller road and crews had to maneuver through water
and mud, which makes recovery efforts difficult.
"Here we've got a bus, in the water and it's mangled," he said.
Anyone with information about the bus accident, or who may have had relatives aboard,
is asked to call CHP Officer Bob Kays at 473-2821.
At a glance
Emergency personnel from Glenn, Lake, Yolo and Sutter counties responded to assist Colusa
County agencies for a bus crash Sunday night.
WHAT: A Valley Transit Company-owned charter bus carrying 42 passengers from Sacramento
to the Colusa Casino Resort on Highway 45 north of Colusa rolled off a rural road in central
Colusa County.
CASUALTIES: Eight dead, 35 injured
WHERE: Lone Star and Abel roads, south of Highway 20 between Colusa and Williams
WHEN: 6:18 p.m. Sunday
Source: California Highway Patrol, Colusa County coroner’s office
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or
[email protected], and reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or
[email protected]. Contact Colusa County Sun-Herald reporter Robert Parsons at
458-2121 or [email protected].
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