Driver arrested for LA bus collision that preceded chopper crash

A US motorist was arrested on murder charges after authorities say she slammed her SUV into a city bus in Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring six others in a prelude to a second deadly tragedy: the fiery crash of a TV news helicopter covering the collision.

Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested on Tuesday night and was being held at a Los Angeles jail with bail set at $4m (R65.3m) police said on Wednesday. The case is under review by the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file the charges in court or pursue different ones. Information on a lawyer who could speak on her behalf was not immediately available.

The helicopter, used by NBC and Telemundo, crashed about two hours after police said Rios drove her Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue, drove through a red traffic light and struck a vehicle before hitting the bus. One passenger was completely ejected from the bus and another was partially ejected, police said.

Rios’ mother, Cindy Rios, said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn since her arrest and had not been contacted by law enforcement.

“The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is extremely disturbing,” Rios said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “If anything, I’m sorry for the other families. My daughter’s alive. People lost their lives.”

The two people who died in the bus crash were identified as Daniel Castillo, 46, of Los Angeles, and Gage Weida, 31. No city was given for Weida, but according to his Facebook page he also lived in LA.

Castillo’s youngest daughter, Johaunna, said her father’s presence made people feel loved, welcomed and cared for. He is survived by his four children.

“There are no words that can truly capture how much we will miss him or the space he leaves behind in our lives,” Johaunna Castillo wrote on a fundraising page for funeral expenses.

NBC4 Los Angeles reported two people aboard the helicopter — reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw — were killed when the chopper went down on Tuesday in the Chatsworth neighbourhood in the San Fernando Valley.

A person on the ground, identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, died in a parking lot. He was from Guatemala, the country’s consulate confirmed.

The crash happened as news crews were reporting on the collision involving the SUV that slammed into the bus.

There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter crash, but an alarm could be heard sounding inside the helicopter’s cockpit as it lost altitude in the final seconds of video the crew broadcast before the crash.

Soon after the beeping noise starts, a woman’s voice says, “Uh oh.” The helicopter quickly moves away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says, “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.

“That video is probably the most important evidence we have discovered so far,” National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Fabian Salazar said on Wednesday at a news briefing.