RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A man accused of intentionally ramming his car head-on into a school bus in Southern California has pleaded not guilty.
Joseph Anthony Garcia entered the pleas to eight felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon Wednesday in Riverside.
District attorney's spokesman John Hall says the 44-year-old Rialto man entered the pleas from the jail ward at a Riverside hospital. Garcia has been treated there for injuries he suffered in the October crash, which also injured three students and the bus driver from Jurupa Unified School District.
Authorities say Garcia tried to climb a fence on a State Route 60 overpass in Pedley in an apparent attempt to leap onto the freeway below, but failed. He then allegedly drove his car the wrong way on an off-ramp and into the bus carrying eight people.