Truck Apparently Didn't Brake Before Hitting Bus

There's no sign that the FedEx truck involved in Thursday's horrific crash braked before hitting a bus carrying high school students to a college tour, according to NTSB investigators probing the accident. A spokesperson says the truck left the southbound lane "at a 10-degree angle from its trajectory," according to NBC News, and crossed the 58-foot-wide median into the northbound lane without leaving any tire marks. The bus, meanwhile, left 145 feet of pre-impact skid marks that show the driver braked and swerved to the right in an attempt to avoid the truck. Yesterday, witnesses in the first car the FedEx truck hit said the truck was already on fire before the accident.

The NTSB is investigating that claim, and will look at evidence at the scene as well as talk to other witnesses who could corroborate the story. They'll also do blood tests on the FedEx driver, who was killed in the crash, to determine whether he inhaled smoke before the collision, the AP reports. Meanwhile, another witness—whose home faces the highway—tells the Los Angeles Times he saw the FedEx truck in the slow lane before the crash. When it tried to move into the fast lane there were two cars in its way, but it could not return to the slow lane because of a third vehicle, and at that point the driver appeared to lose control, the witness says. Click to read about the eight victims who have been officially identified. (More highway crash stories.)