The Yuba City bus disaster occurred on May 21, 1976 in Martinez, California. The accident occurred at 11 a.m., as the bus, a 1950 Crown bus on its way to Miramonte High School in Orinda for a friendship day involving the choruses of Yuba City High School and Miramonte High School, took the off-ramp southbound from the Martinez-Benicia Bridge for a brief rest stop. The bus fell approximately 30 feet and landed upside-down, crushing the roof to the bottom of the bus windows. 29 of the 51 passengers on board were killed, including twenty-eight students and one teacher.
Although details were initially slow to appear, local, regional, and national newspapers and newsmagazines soon picked up the story.
To date, the Yuba City bus disaster is the worst bus crash in United States history involving a single bus.
Famous quotes containing the words city, bus and/or disaster:
“The language of the younger generation ... has the brutality of the city and an assertion of threatening power at hand, not to come. It is military, theatrical, and at its most coherent probably a lasting repudiation of empty courtesy and bureaucratic euphemism.”
—Elizabeth Hardwick (b. 1916)
“It seemed a long way from 143rd Street. Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. Dancing with the Duke of Devonshire was a long way from not being allowed to bowl in Jefferson City, Missouri, because the white customers complained about it.”
—Althea Gibson (b. 1927)
“The disaster ... is not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect—this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they’re not critical to a culture’s existence.”
—Twyla Tharp (b. 1941)