Here at Humboldt State University we are mourning the deaths and injuries of those caught in a bus and truck collison who were on their way to campus. The bus was one of three carrying high school students from southern California for a college visit. The crash happened late afternoon Friday on U.S. highway 5 some 200 miles away. A Federal Express tractor trailer truck crossed the median and collided head-on with the chartered bus. There were several explosions and both vehicles burned completely. Ten people were killed and 40 or so injured, some with serious burns, others with minor injuries.
Among the ten who died were 5 high school students and the drivers of the bus and the FedEx truck. Also killed were HSU alum Michael Myvett and his fiancee, Mattison Haywood. Myvett was a therapist at an autism treatment facility. They were chaperoning the trip.
Also killed was Arthur Arzola, an HSU Admissions Office staff member who worked primarily with low-income and first-generation students in the Los Angeles area. Arzola and Myvett were known for their dedication to young people often overlooked or abandoned because of their economic status or health challenges.
That the students on this bus (and the two that made it safely to campus) were low-income students who would have been the first in their families to attend college naturally figured in follow-up news stories, though this approach led to some headlines in questionable taste. Because of that, I'm not linking to any of those stories.
University and California State University officials however have acted with sensitivity and restraint, but proactively, visiting the injured and looking after the students on the other buses who had arrived before the accident.
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