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Police impounded a Santa Cruz party bus after a fatal accident Friday night on HIighway 17. (Photo: KTVU News)

Fatal accident: Police seized a party bus that ran over and killed a 25-year-old passenger Friday night after she was thrown out of the door on Highway 17 near Los Gatos.

•    About a dozen people — a number of whom were underage — were traveling home from a country music concert in a party bus. All of them were highly intoxicated.

•    Two of the female passengers got into a fight near an emergency door. The door came open and both of the women fell from the bus onto the highway.

•    The bus ran over and killed one of the women. The other was hospitalized with moderate injuries.

•    Authorities impounded the bus and are trying to determine how the door came open.

The deadly passenger van accident occurred shortly before midnight, according to an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The California Highway Patrol reported that Party Bus of Santa Cruz was transporting around a dozen passengers home from a Brad Paisley concert at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

CHP Officer DJ Sarabia said all of the passengers on the bus were highly intoxicated, but the driver was sober.

The bus was traveling southbound on Highway 17, between Lark Avenue and Highway 9 in Los Gatos, when 25-year-old Natasha Noland reportedly got into an argument with a 20-year-old woman from Felton. Somehow the emergency door opened and both women fell out onto the highway.

The bus, which was traveling 45 to 55 mph, ran over and killed Noland. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Sarabia said.

The other woman suffered moderate injuries and was taken via ground ambulance to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose to be treated, according to a KTVU News report. The exact nature of her injuries was not known, but Sarabia said she “had road rash all over her body.”

Investigators are trying to determine how the emergency door opened.

“There are two mechanisms for the door to open, either manually with the bus driver pulling the lever or the emergency lever that’s near the door,” Sabarian said. The bus has been impounded and will be thoroughly inspected for any possible mechanical failures.

None of the passengers on the bus cooperated with police, Sarabia said. Two of them were arrested.

“Absolutely everyone was highly intoxicated,” Sarabia said. ”We’re hoping once they sober up they’ll cooperate a bit more,” Sarabia said.

A number of the passengers were underage. Some fled the scene.  The driver was not suspected of any wrongdoing and was not arrested. The accident remains under investigation.

Santa Cruz Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented passenger van/bus accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.