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Pinole Area News

Heroic Chowchilla kidnapping bus driver dies

Frank Edward "Ed" Ray, a school bus driver who was hailed as a hero for helping 26 California students escape after three kidnappers buried them underground in 1976, has died. He was 91.

Ray died Thursday from complications of cirrhosis of the liver, said his granddaughter, Robyn Gomes.

Ray was the only adult on board when his school bus was hijacked in the farm town of Chowchilla. The kidnappers held them inside a truck buried underground in a plan to demand $5 million ransom.

The bus driver led the children to safety after he and two older children dug their way out as the kidnappers slept. No one was hurt.

The incident made national headlines and was made into a TV movie.

Ray's family remembers him as a simple, good person, Gomes said.

"He was a remarkable man. If you met him, you loved him, he was that kind of guy," she said. "The community will remember him as a hero, but it's not at all how he saw himself."

Ray collected newspaper clippings about the kidnapping, Gomes said, and bought the school bus he drove in 1976 as a memento.

Ray's funeral services will be held Tuesday at Chowchilla Cemetery.

_{Fri, 18 May 2012 14:09:29 -0700}

All lanes reopen following fatal motorcycle crash on I-880

A motorcyclist was killed in a crash on northbound Interstate Highway 880 in Oakland late Friday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The solo-vehicle crash was reported at about 11:45 a.m. on northbound Highway 880 south of Washington Street, CHP Officer Kevin Bartlett said.

The motorcyclist apparently crashed into the highway's center divider and was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is not yet being released by the Alameda County coroner's bureau.

The crash caused the two left northbound lanes of Highway 880 to be blocked in the area for nearly two hours. All lanes had reopened by 1:30 p.m., according to the CHP.

_{Fri, 18 May 2012 13:47:53 -0700}

Mad cow quarantines lifted at two California dairies

Officials have lifted quarantines on two Central California dairies linked to a case of mad cow disease, after investigators found the illness didn't come from cattle feed.

Tests performed by the World Organization for Animal Health confirmed what U.S. labs had found: The diseased cow had a form of the illness involving a spontaneous mutation of a protein gene that hasn't caused illness in humans.

The cases of mad cow reported across Great Britain in the 1990s were caused by cattle being fed protein supplements made from the spinal columns and brains of diseased cows. That practice has since been banned.

The case in Tulare County was discovered through random testing.

Officials have not released the names of the affected dairies, which had been shuttered since April 24.

_{Fri, 18 May 2012 12:48:03 -0700}

News Source: MedleyStory More Local News Stories