Survivors gird for trip home

PENDLETON, Ore. – Some of the survivors of a fatal bus crash on a rural Oregon interstate retrieved their passports and other belongings Tuesday so they could finish their journey to Canada.

At least 14 survivors remained hospitalized in three states after the weekend crash that killed nine and injured 38 others. State police escorted others one by one to collect their property, which was strewn across a hillside as the tour bus careened 200 feet from a partly icy roadway Sunday.

The bus was returning to Vancouver, B.C., on the final leg of a nine-day tour of the western United States. The trip was organized by a British Columbia travel agency to carry tourists traveling in small groups. Most of the passengers were Korean.

The Red Cross said some of the survivors were too terrified to get on another bus, so a nearby Ford dealer offered to drive them in smaller passenger vehicles. Some were expected to begin the trip today.

“The pieces are kind of getting into place about getting back to normal, and they want to go home,” said Mary Naman, a registered nurse from Portland working with the American Red Cross to help survivors.

Red Cross workers are helping about 15 survivors who remain in Pendleton, trying to make them as comfortable as possible while they wait for police to release their belongings and for the logistics of their return trip to be worked out. One local volunteer, who is Korean, planned to make traditional Korean food for them, Naman said.

Many of the survivors did not know each other before the trip but have supported each other and formed a close bond through shared experience, said Sandy Ramirez, a Red Cross psychologist. While they’re eager to get home, it will also be tough to separate from the other survivors who understand what they’re going through, she said.

State police and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were expected to finish an inspection of the bus Tuesday.

Oregon State Police identified one of the nine victims as a 57-year-old Washington man. Authorities said Dale William Osborn, of Spanaway, was killed in the Sunday crash and his wife, Sue Osborn, remained hospitalized in Pendleton.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the other eight people who died, but police said the four men and four women were of Asian descent and one female victim may be a juvenile.

Two families are expected to arrive from South Korea later this week, said Vice Consul Chul Ho Choi, who came to Pendleton from Seattle to help authorities translate, identify victims and notify relatives. Relatives of all victims have now been notified, he said.

The bus was traveling westbound in the left lane of Interstate 84 when it hit a concrete barrier, veered across both westbound lanes and plunged through the guardrail and 200 feet down the embankment, said Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings. The NTSB said the bus rolled at least once.