Some survivors of a bus crash in Oregon that left nine dead are expected to continue their journey to Vancouver Wednesday -- though a number of them won't be setting foot on another bus any time soon.
The owner of a Ford dealership in La Grande, Ore., has offered up four SUVs and drivers to transport any survivors who don't feel comfortable riding on a bus to Vancouver.
"Around here if you ask people to do something, they just jump at the chance," said Roger Barnes, a manager at Legacy Ford, the dealership providing the vehicles.
The deadly crash took place Sunday in northeastern Oregon, when a Vancouver-bound tour bus returning from Las Vegas went off the road and plunged down a steep embankment. Nine people were killed and dozens more of the 47 people onboard were injured.
Oregon State Police have offered few details about what happened, and have only named one victim: 57-year-old Dale William Osborn of Spanaway, Wash. Police say the other eight fatalities -- four men and four women -- are all of Asian descent.
At least two of the survivors were Korean-born students who had moved to Vancouver two years ago. Another passenger injured in the crash, 54-year-old Haeng Kyu Hwang, was a deacon at Kwanglim Church in Surrey, B.C.
There's a wide age range among the survivors -- from a seven-year-old girl to a 74-year-old woman -- although police say the deceased were all adults. Oregon police continue to work with the B.C. RCMP and Korean consular officials in the U.S. to reach the passengers' families and identify victims.
Volunteers with the Red Cross in Pendleton have been providing food, clothing, mental health services and shelter to the survivors.
Police have determined the bus was heading west on Interstate 84 when it collided with a concrete barrier bordering the left shoulder of the traffic lane. The bus then veered across two westbound lanes, went through a guardrail and plunged 60 metres down an embankment before it came to a rest.
Some of the passengers were ejected from the bus, while others were pinned inside the vehicle and had to await rescue.
The tour bus was owned by a Vancouver-area company called Mi Joo Tour & Travel.