The woman accused of crashing a Ford SUV into the side of a Los Angeles Metro bus is a convicted offender who authorities say was under the influence of drugs at the time of the deadly collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, was charged with murder on Wednesday morning and remained in custody on bail set at $4.03 million.
Rios also faces charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said she appeared to be impaired by drugs, while narcotics were allegedly discovered in her vehicle.
The mother of one had previously been convicted in Ventura County on charges of drug possession and driving with a suspended license, according to records obtained by KTLA.
“What is particularly tragic about this case is that this is a preventable tragedy,” Hochman said during a Thursday news conference.
“Ms Rios did not have to get behind the wheel impaired,” he said. “She did not have to drive on the other side of the road. She did not have to blow through the red light at full force to drive her SUV right into a Metro bus. That was all preventable.”
“She chose, and that was a choice by her, to do what she did and that choice has resulted in deadly and destructive consequences.”
Gage Weida, 31, and Daniel Castillo, 46, were killed when the SUV struck the Los Angeles Metro bus at about 5pm Tuesday.
About two hours later, an NBC news helicopter that had arrived to capture footage of the bus wreckage crashed into a nearby parking lot and erupted in flames.
The helicopter crash killed Eliana Moreno, 38, and pilot George Marciniw, 70. Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, a tourist from Guatemala who was on the ground, also died.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, was charged with murder on Wednesday morning in connection with a fatal bus crash in Los Angeles. She was held on $4.03 million bail
Rios is alleged to have plowed her vehicle into the commuter bus at around 5pm on Wednesday, killing two people onboard
The scene of the bus crash with the car embedded into the bus
Police have said Rios drove her Ford Expedition the wrong way down De Soto Avenue ‘well beyond the speed limit,’ running a red light as she plowed into the bus.
The deadly crash was caught on camera, showing how the bus veered into a utility pole, before ejecting one passenger and partially ejecting another.
Along with Weida and Castillo, six others were injured.
A Metro spokesperson has also confirmed to KTLA that Rios was injured in the collision and was treated at a local hospital before being taken into custody.
She now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison, and is due in court on Friday.
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Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department is continuing to investigate the fatal bus crash while the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) probes the helicopter collision.
The NewsChopper4 was flying over the area between two warehouses at the intersection of Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue as Moreno filmed the bus crash at around 7pm on Tuesday night.
Gage Weida, 31, and Daniel Castillo, 46, died in the metro bus crash
Eliana Moreno, 38, and pilot George Marciniw, 70, were on board an NBC 4 Los Angeles helicopter when it went down while covering the fatal bus collision
The shocking footage shows an aerial view of the bus crash and the wrecked SUV that T-boned the city bus as the whirl of the helicopter could be heard in the background.
Suddenly, the sound of the engine’s motor winds down and a horn blares – possibly warning the pilot that the main rotor speed had dropped too low.
At that point, Moreno could be heard quietly saying ‘Uh oh.’
As the angle of the camera then begins to descend and shake, the reporter could be heard asking Marciniw: ‘You can’t pull up?’
The video is now at the center of the NTSB’s investigation as authorities work to piece together what may have caused the Eurocopter AS350B2 to go down, Investigator in Charge Fabian Salazar said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
‘The video that was actually taken while the reporter was doing live coverage, that video is probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far,’ he declared, adding that the agency will work toward obtaining a ‘pristine copy’ of the recording and send it to the agency’s lab for a sound spectrum analysis.
‘In that recording, we are clearly hearing sounds that are consistent with the engine changing its speed and we’re also hearing tones that are being generated that are likely advisories to the pilot, so it’s important that we get that recording to our lab, so that they can be downloaded and we can get to that factual evidence that way.’
The NBC 4 Los Angeles helicopter plummeted to the ground as Moreno was capturing aerial footage of the bus crash
Investigators will also gather as much data from the wreckage site as possible, Salazar said, as he urged anyone with information about the crash to reach out to the agency.
Once that portion of the investigation is complete, the helicopter will be moved to a secure facility so the agency could continue its examination and try to pull additional data from the wreckage.
The chopper’s maintenance logbooks and the weather will also be part of the investigation, and authorities will work to obtain surveillance footage from buildings near the crash scene to get a full picture of the sequence of events.
A preliminary report is expected to be completed in 30 days, but a final report listing probable cause can take up to 18 months to complete.