A fiery head-on collision between a pickup truck and a rural transit bus in Northern California that left six people dead earlier this year was intentionally caused and has been classified as a murder-suicide, authorities said. <\/p>\n
On Jan. 14, a woman driving a Toyota Tacoma was high on methamphetamine when she purposefully crossed the center line into oncoming traffic on Highway 99 near Corning and slammed into a Tehama Rural Area eXpress bus, the Tehama County Sheriff\u2019s Office announced<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n The bus driver and four passengers were killed, as was the driver of the Toyota.<\/p>\n The pickup truck driver, Christina Whittmore, 41, of Corning, had tried to kill herself on the same highway a day before the crash, the Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n The collision on the narrow two-lane highway ignited a fire that engulfed the 17-passenger mid-sized commercial shuttle bus, which had a 50-year-old driver and five passengers onboard, according to<\/a> the National Transportation Safety Board. One surviving passenger was seriously injured. <\/p>\n An investigation by the California Highway Patrol showed that Whittmore made no effort to slow or stop her 2021 black Tacoma, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n Investigators obtained dash camera footage that showed Whittmore crossing into the opposite lane of traffic in the same area a day earlier in an apparent attempt to crash head-on into a garbage truck, the Sheriff\u2019s Office statement said. <\/p>\n The garbage truck driver took evasive action and avoided a collision. <\/p>\n Investigators found writings associated with Whittmore that \u201cincluded references to suicidal ideation, financial difficulties, and illicit substance abuse,\u201d according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n The Tehama County coroner\u2019s office will amend the death certificates of the bus driver and passengers to say their cause of death was homicide, authorities said. Whittmore\u2019s will be changed to say she died by suicide. <\/p>\n