UKIAH – Officials are investigating the cause of a collision earlier this week involving a Lake Transit bus.

The California Highway Patrol's Ukiah office reported that the crash occurred at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday on Hensley Creek Road near Ukiah.

Bus driver Ruby Joann Scribner, 59, of Clearlake was driving the 2003 Freightliner passenger bus eastbound at approximately 30 miles per hours in a 35-mile-per-hour zone when the crash took place, the CHP reported.

The bus suffered a “mechanical failure” with its steering control, according to the CHP. That caused the bus to veer to the right and collide with a telephone pole guide wire.

CHP said the bus came to rest facing north and blocking the westbound lane.

Scribner suffered no injuries, and neither did passengers Marty Cook of Lodi or Tonya White Rock of Upper Lake. The CHP said that another customer, Mara Isabec Aguilar of Upper Lake, complained of pain.

The collision's cause is still under investigation, the CHP noted in its report.

Lake Transit Manager Mark Wall said he couldn't confirm if the crash was caused by a mechanical failure. He added that the bus suffered minor damage.

Paratransit Services of Bremerton, Wash., holds the contract to operate the Lake Transit.

Wanda Gray, operations manager for Lake Transit, referred questions on the collision to Paratransit's corporate office, which did not return a Wednesday call.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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