A small tour bus carrying 22 members of a Downey church from a retreat in Big Bear overturned Sunday afternoon on Highway 330 two miles north of the 210 Freeway, injuring nearly two-dozen people – six seriously – and blocking the road in both directions.
About 5:15 p.m., the California Highway Patrol reported that the bus had been removed, but it took an additional hour and 15 minutes to reopen both lanes of the highway. Northbound traffic was being stopped at Highland Avenue in Highland, and southbound traffic at the ranger station while crews attended to the scene.
More than 200 women from Iglesia de Cristo Ministerios Llamada Final were traveling in five or six buses from an annual retreat meeting in the San Bernardino Mountains, said Robert Acosta, the assistant to the senior pastor. The bus that crashed had 22 passengers onboard, said Jeremy Kern of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
AMR ambulances were lined up one after the other to transport the patients to various hospitals after they were assessed and treated at a makeshift triage area at the crash scene.