The driver of an S.U.V. that slammed into a Los Angeles bus on Tuesday evening, killing two people and injuring five others, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, prosecutors said Thursday.
The driver, Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, was “impaired by drugs” when she blasted through a red light into opposing traffic and broadsided the bus, the district attorney of Los Angeles County, Nathan J. Hochman, said at a news conference on Thursday.
In addition to murder, Ms. Rios has also been charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving, Mr. Hochman said. She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
It was not immediately clear if Ms. Rios had legal representation.
Mr. Hochman said that at around 5 p.m. on Tuesday in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, Ms. Rios was driving a Ford Expedition “well beyond the speed limit” before she plunged into the metro bus.
The collision killed two passengers, Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31. Another five passengers were injured, two of them critically, Mr. Hochman said, noting that the crash was so severe that two people had been thrown from the bus upon impact.
Stephanie Wiggins, the chief executive of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said at the news conference that the bus driver was among those injured.
Ms. Rios also had “illegal hard drugs” in the car, Mr. Hochman said. He added that the drugs in the vehicle and in her system were still under evaluation.
The crash attracted a swarm of news helicopters, one of which plummeted to the ground and burst into flames, killing its pilot and reporter, as well as a pedestrian on the ground. The helicopter crash has led to soul-searching in Los Angeles County, which has long relied on aerial news gatherers to be the eyes over a vast, sprawling region.
Mr. Hochman said that when the federal investigation into the helicopter crash was complete, prosecutors would “certainly consider” whether or not there was a “tie-in” with the case against Ms. Rios.
“If there is, then we will consider the appropriate charges,” he said. “If there is not, then that will not lead to any further charges.”
Mr. Hochman cited other cases in which people who had driven over the speed limit while under the influence of alcohol or drugs had been charged with murder.
“If you’re thinking about getting behind the wheel drunk or drugged, think again,” Mr. Hochman said.
In another high-profile case in Los Angeles County, Rebecca Grossman, a philanthropist, was convicted of murder in 2024 in the hit-and-run killing of two young brothers in Westlake Village. She struck them in a crosswalk while racing her then boyfriend in her S.U.V., which she was driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, according to court records and trial testimony.
Mr. Hochman also referenced a case in which a woman traveling about 130 miles per hour in a Mercedes killed six people in a Los Angeles neighborhood in 2022. That trial is ongoing.
Ms. Rios’s bail has been set at $4.1 million. She will be arraigned on Friday.
The post S.U.V. Driver Charged With Murder in Los Angeles Bus Crash appeared first on New York Times.
