PENDLETON, Or.-- A charter bus from Canada crashed down a steep embankment Sunday morning on Interstate 84 near Pendleton.
Nine people were killed and another 26 were taken to the hospital with a range of injuries.
The charter bus carrying an estimated 40 people was going westbound on Interstate 84 when it crashed through the guardrail and fell 200 feet down an embankment.
It happened around 10:30am Sunday morning.
It took hours before all the passengers were removed from the wreckage.
The charter bus was traveling on interstate 84 near Pendleton, Oregon, in icy conditions, when it broke through the guardrail and fell 200 hundred feet down an embankment at Deadman Pass.
The roadway was blocked most of the day. Melissa Hosey was stuck in traffic for over an hour before she was routed around the scene.
"They finally re-routed us through the Deadman Pass rest area then we could pull off here and we could see what you're seeing there. There were like 15 rescue vehicles just coming from everywhere. Then the life-flight helicopter flew in," Hosey said.
Of the estimated 40 passengers on board, nine are confirmed dead and 26 were transported to nearby hospitals.
The smashed and ripped bus require rescue responders for multiple surrounding counties.
"The extent of some of the injuries that had to be tended to there on scene before they could be brought back up to the roadway, many of which had to be brought back up by specially trained rope rescue personnel," said Lt. Gregg Hastings, Oregon State Police.
"Four or five people it looked like were just kind of hand pulling them with ropes on sleds up the side, up to the rescue vehicle," Hosey said.
Oregon State Police said the bus, owned by a company out of Vancouver, British Columbia, was reportedly on it's way from Las Vegas to Canada when the crash happened.
Investigators said it could be days or weeks before we know exactly what caused this tragic accident.
