ATWATER, Calif. — California Highway Patrol officials say five people have been killed in a bus crash on a central California highway.
California Highway Patrol Officer Moi Onsurez says the crash happened shortly before 3:30 a.m. Tuesday on State Route 99 between the cities of Atwater and Livingston.
Photos and video show the unmarked white bus crashed into the pole of a highway exit sign that appears to have torn through the middle of the vehicle. Emergency workers climbed in through the windows.
Onsurez says the bus with about 30 people aboard was heading from Southern California to Sacramento.
Additional details were not immediately available.
The northbound lanes of the freeway are closed during the investigation.
Atwater is a city of 28,000 people in Merced County, about 65 miles northwest of Fresno.