SAN DIEGO—Authorities March 29 publicly identified a 55-year-old man who was fatally injured last week when the pickup truck he was driving crashed head-on into a school bus on a Ramona-area roadway.
Carey Rufenacht of Ramona lost control of the 2003 Chevrolet 2500 for unknown reasons while heading south on a curving stretch of Mussey Grade Road shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office and California Highway Patrol (CHP).
The truck veered into a northbound lane and collided with an oncoming Ramona Unified School District vehicle with two children riding in it, CHP public-affairs Officer Jared Grieshaber said.
“After the impact, the Chevrolet continued in a southwesterly direction, traveling partially up a small dirt embankment, then back eastbound across both lanes of Mussey Grade Road,” Grieshaber said. “The Chevrolet came to rest partially blocking the northbound lane, trapping the driver inside [it].”
After emergency crews freed Rufenacht from the damaged pickup, paramedics airlifted him to Palomar Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The 48-year-old bus driver, also a Ramona resident, was taken to the same Escondido medical center for treatment of minor injuries. Her two juvenile passengers were unhurt, Grieshaber said.
