A tow truck driver from Auburn was killed Monday evening when a box van struck a bus on Highway 50, officials said. The 27-year-old victim was assisting the private bus that had run out of gas near an exit in El Dorado Hills, said Officer Jasper Begay of the California Highway Patrol.
Begay said the driver of the 1962 school bus had bought the vehicle to rebuild it into an RV for his personal use when it became disabled on westbound Highway 50 near the Latrobe Road exit.
The bus driver waited for about an hour on the right shoulder for the tow truck driver. Shortly before 6:30 p.m., the tow truck driver was operating the levers at the left rear of the truck after he had attached the bus when the box van drifted onto the right shoulder, Begay said.
The white van struck the bus in the rear and demolished the left side of it before hitting the tow truck operator, killing him instantly, Begay said.
The van driver, a 41-year-old Pollock Pines man, suffered moderate injuries and the bus driver suffered minor injuries, Begay said. Both men were taken to UC Davis Medical Center. Names of those involved in the crash were not immediately released.
Begay said officers are investigating what caused the van driver to drive onto the right shoulder.