A woman was arrested in a fatal crash in Chatsworth on Tuesday after she plowed into a Metro bus with her SUV on Nordhoff Street near De Soto Avenue. Two people were killed and six were injured in the collision.
She was booked on suspicion of murder, with her bail set at $4.03 million.
The driver of the SUV – a 2004 gray Ford Expedition – was later identified as 36-year-old Bailee Rios of Simi Valley, reported the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Rios had been driving southbound along De Soto Avenue when she ended up running a red light and colliding into the bus broadside. The crash happened shortly after 5 p.m., said the LA Fire Department (LAFD).
Roman Padilla, who lives in the Lake Manor neighborhood of Chatsworth, was on his way to dinner when he suddenly heard multiple sirens going off and saw four helicopters circling in the sky. Following the commotion, he ended up at the site of the devastating SUV-bus crash.
“It was really awful,” he told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. “That woman must have been going [50 or] 60 miles an hour; I don’t know what. But her SUV went into the bus a good five feet. And then I actually saw her get pulled from the vehicle, and they put her in an ambulance.
“I just stood there watching for half an hour,” added Padilla, describing the scene as “terrible.”
LA Metro released the following statement after the collision involving a Metro Line 166 bus.
“There were two confirmed fatalities, and six people were transported to a local hospital in unknown condition. Metro extends its condolences to the families of the deceased and wishes the injured a speedy recovery. Metro thanks the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Police Department for their prompt response to the scene.”
“The impact fully ejected one passenger from the bus and partially ejected a second,” said the LAPD in a statement. “Debris from the collision also damaged a blue 2024 Honda CR-V that was stopped, facing northbound, on DeSoto Avenue at Nordhoff Street.”
On Wednesday, the LA County Medical Examiner’s office identified the two victims as 31-year-old Gage Weida, who died on the street, and Daniel Castillo, 46, who died on the bus.
Several news helicopters were flying above the collision site covering the accident when to everyone’s shock, an NBC4 helicopter went straight down, crashing to the ground, killing both the pilot and the reporter on board. A third person was killed on the ground.
Those victims have been identified as reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and bystander Edy Gutierrez Mejia.
The crash occurred a few blocks away from the collision, shortly before 7 p.m.
Padilla recalls seeing heavy plumes of black smoke from the helicopter crash filling the air while he was dining at a nearby restaurant.
“I didn’t think anything of it [initially], because it’s an industrial area, and it’s not uncommon for there to be fires in industrial areas,” said Padilla, who later heard it was a second fatal incident, describing the day as “all so tragic.”
LA Metro said the LAPD is leading the investigation of the SUV-bus crash. Anyone with information can call the LA Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-222-TIPS or 800-222-8477.