Student shares his story about CVHS bus crash, bus driver died
A woman who had a medical emergency while driving a Coachella Valley High School bus that was involved in a collision at the school this morning has died, according to a California Highway Patrol news release.
The driver has been identified as 42-year-old Oralia Gutierrez Lopez, according to the Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau.
The California Highway Patrol said the collision was reported at 6:30 a.m. at the school along the 83800 block of Airport Boulevard.
Lopez suffered from an “unknown medical emergency” while driving a bus with 35 students on board, and collided into a bus parked in front of her at a slow rate of speed. She was rendered unconscious by the medical emergency.
She was transported from the scene by an American Medical Response Ambulance to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital where she died.
James Harrmann is a 12th grade CVHS student who was on the bus at the time of the crash. He tells News Channel 3 he rushed to Lopez’s side and removed her foot from the gas.
“I looked up and she was knocked out in the corner and we really didn’t know what to do,” Herrmann said.
Hermann says a CVUSD employee came onto the bus and tried helping Lopez.
Another student watched the crash happen from outside the bus.
“She wasn’t breathing, so they did CPR. They (CVUSD employees) called the paramedics and the ambulance came and the firefighters came,” said Lizabeth Chavarria, 11th grade CVHS student.
Students who were on the bus that Lopez was driving were offered counseling according to Herrmann.
“The school offered us counseling. Anyone who was on the bus, if we had a hard time and we needed to speak, for us to go to the office, talk to our counselors, talk to any counselors. If we felt stiff or anything hurt for us to go tell the nurse immediately. They just told everyone to be there for each other and have each others backs at this time,” Herrmann continued.
The driver of the bus which was collided with was uninjured. There are no reports of students injured at this time.
The collision is still under investigation. Drugs or alcohol did not appear to play a factor in the collision.
A GoFundMe page has been setup to help with funeral expenses. You can donate here.
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