<p>'Twas a misunderstanding, Mom…</p>
<p>Originally, when I clicked a link from this thread, it led me to a street that was lined with bushes. That’s where my confusion came from. But I understand now…it’s all ok. 
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<p>Note that the CalTrans design standards specify consideration of a median barrier based on either (a) number of cross-median collisions in a five year period, (b) number of fatal cross-median collisions in a five year period, or © median width and traffic volume.</p>
<p>For the last criterion in the absence of high cross-median collision frequency, a median more than 75 feet wide would not be considered for a barrier; a median that is 48 feet wide (as appears to be the case here) would be considered for a barrier if the traffic volume exceeded about 40,000 vehicles per day.</p>
<p><a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps; is probably the location of the crash based on the photos in this article: <a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Dreams-dashed-in-fatal-college-tour-bus-crash-5394356.php”>http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Dreams-dashed-in-fatal-college-tour-bus-crash-5394356.php</a></p>
<p>The location is estimated by photos showing the billboard advertising a casino 9 miles ahead at Liberal Avenue, and the presence of a frontage road that ends next to the crash location.</p>
<p>Speed limit signs shown in some photos indicate that the speed limit is 70mph, but, in California, trucks are limited to 55mph even on roads where the speed limit is higher than 55mph. A schoolbus is also subject to the 55mph speed limit, and the bus in question appears not to qualify for any of the exceptions (i.e. it probably does count as a schoolbus for this purpose).
<a href=“http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22406.htm”>http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22406.htm</a>
<a href=“https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d01/vc545.htm”>https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d01/vc545.htm</a></p>
<p>Note, in the satellite view, that the trees and bushes are less dense where the truck would have crossed over if that were the location of the crash.</p>
<p>I was literally nauseous when I heard about this last night. Imagine these families of low-income, first gen kids who were going to get the opportunity to see what college is and be the first in their families. I wonder how many of those families on any of the buses in that caravan will now allow their kids to move away from home to go to college. I have worked with these kinds of seniors in high school, and it’s difficult enough for some of these parents to let go. Truly tragic. Seems pretty clear at this point that the bus driver was not at fault.</p>
<p>This is so very sad, it makes me want to donate money to Humboldt for scholarships.
( it was also one of Ds choices)
<a href=“http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/College-visit-turns-tragic-for-California-students-5394356.php”>http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/College-visit-turns-tragic-for-California-students-5394356.php</a></p>
<p>Super sad about this one. So horrible. </p>
<p>This breaks my heart. You love your children so much, you don’t want them hurt in any way, much less killed in a senseless accident. I cannot imagine the agony of being asked for dental records because my darling child has likely been burned beyond recognition. I just hope to God these kids died quickly and didn’t suffer. Just a horrible tragedy.</p>
<p>I-5 isn’t a rural road. It’s the north-south interstate freeway on the west coast. It connects Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, comes close to San Francisco, and continues to LA/San Diego. The median at Orland is 30 feet wide or more, with what looks like low foliage, and the road is flat and straight. It was a cloudless day, and neither driver was driving into the sun. This isn’t a particularly dangerous stretch of freeway. </p>
<p>The CHP is sending out tweets asking for witnesses. I’m sure investigators have already talked to the people in the small white car also involved in the accident. There must be others. It was rush hour.</p>
<p>In addition to the survivors and the families of the deceased, I feel for the students on the other two buses travelling from SoCal. One of the students who made it safely to Humboldt State had a twin sister on the bus which crashed, and that sister is among the unaccounted for. </p>
<p>CalTrans is notorious for refusing to install barriers and they always have their reasons, which are of no value to those whose loved ones are killed as a result of crossovers. Is installing barriers costly? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. As someone who has witnessed head-ons along both I-5 and 101, what I know is that once the community worked together to force the installation of barriers along those deadly stretches of roads, the head-ons came to an end. I now live in Florida, where we deal with the same problem - long stretches of 95 or 528 to Orlando without barriers, and many more terrible drivers in this area - and I refuse to drive in the fast lane, though that is not much protection in the event of a collision, especially with the retention ponds along the side of the slow lane. I had never heard of people drowning after driving off the side of the road until I moved here - it is a real threat.</p>
<p>To those poor families in California, all I can do is pray for them. Perhaps their teachers and kids’ lives will not be in vain.</p>
<p>[Truck</a> was on fire before it hit students’ bus, witnesses say](<a href=“Truck was on fire before it hit students' bus, witnesses say”>Truck was on fire before it hit students' bus, witnesses say)</p>
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<p>I know I -5 is the main freeway going between Canada & Mexico on the west coast. But freeways are generally completely seperate from north bound and south bound traffic in my experience instead of just having a grassy strip in between.
Especially where the speed limit can go above 55.
Orland is almost twice as dense as Arcata. 2,690 per sq mile compared to 1,600.</p>
<p>We do a lot of driving on highways in the eastern third of the country and actually very few of them have any sort of barrier, other than a median, to separate the lanes in each direction. </p>
<p>They may be generally separated, but it’s not unusual to see them only separated by grass.
<a href=“https://www.google.com/maps/place/Interstate+4/@28.2155288,-81.6724743,186m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x88e78e8a3133f61d:0x2e54df2331c11748?hl=en”>Google Maps;
This strip of road, while it’s speed limit is 70, pushes 85 frequently. I’ve never felt any danger from the opposing traffic. It’s the traffic I’m in!</p>
<p>ek, in urban areas like the greater Puget Sound area, where land is at a premium, I think they often use concrete barriers or similar because land is in short supply (although IICR, around Kent and Fife, there’s not a barrier, just land?). But in rural areas, I think the thought process is that it’s cheaper and easier to separate the traffic with a wide median than it is to build a barrier. </p>
<p>For the mechanics: what could possibly cause the cab to become engulfed so quickly that the driver wouldn’t have time to pull over or even slow down?</p>
<p>ETA - Here’s video of the driver of the small white car. She says, “It was in flames as it came through the median. It wasn’t coming from the front or the engine, it was more from behind the cab.”</p>
<p><a href=“No Sign FedEx Truck Braked Before Crashing Into Bus, NTSB says – NBC Los Angeles”>No Sign FedEx Truck Braked Before Crashing Into Bus, NTSB says – NBC Los Angeles;
<p>I wonder if something was being transported that was illegal.</p>
<p>Re: <a href=“Truck was on fire before it hit students' bus, witnesses say”>Truck was on fire before it hit students' bus, witnesses say;
<p>That article says that the traffic lanes were 60 feet apart.</p>
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<p>However, most of it is in rural areas. Orland is a small town in a rural area (as can be seen in the satellite image maps).</p>
<p>And I imagine that density of traffic has increased since the roads were originally designed.
Ucbalumnus, you are actually quoting lasma.</p>
<p>The area where this accident occurred is very rural. Every time I go up to visit my Chico friends I am reminded of this. Besides Orland (Hwy. 32 at I 5) you have towns like Williams, Maxwell, and Willows to the south, and Corning, and Red Bluff to the north. It seems like every time I travel this stretch of I 5 I marvel at how little traffic I encounter. Contrasting to this rural stretch of 5 is Hwy. 99, to the east, which has a much more dangerous feel. There is not much of a gap, if any, between NB and SB traffic in those stretches that have no median barrier. </p>
<p>“I wonder if something was being transported that was illegal.”</p>
<p>I doubt that. Trucks often deliver pyrophoric chemicals that are on the no fly list such as n-BuLi, but those are usually packaged so well that it would not be easy for them to come into contact with air and cause fires. I hope the investigators will be able to find out what really caused this tragic accident.</p>