Rescue crews work at the scene of a charter bus crash on northbound State Route 99 between Atwater and Livingston, Calif., Tuesday. The charter bus veered off the freeway before dawn and struck a pole that sliced the vehicle nearly in half, killing five and injuring 18.

ATWATER, Calif. — A bus was nearly sliced in half after plowing into a highway pole in California’s heavily agricultural San Joaquin Valley, killing five people as survivors faced horrific scene of wounds and screams.

Eighteen people also were injured in Tuesday’s crash, but by days’ end none were critical, officials said.

Passenger Leonardo Sanchez was sleeping peacefully before dawn on the bus carrying him to Oregon to pick blueberries when he was suddenly thrown face-first into the back of the seat in front of him and awakened to the horrific scene.

“There was lots of screaming and crying,” Sanchez told The Associated Press hours after Tuesday’s crash. He said only about eight people, including himself, escaped the bus largely unscathed.

The accident sliced the bus from front to back, with the vehicle coming to a stop when its first rear axle hit the pole.

“We couldn’t pull people out because there was shattered glass everywhere, seats destroyed,” Sanchez said.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said rescuers pulled “bags of body parts” from the bus along with survivors, adding that some people suffered severed limbs. Other victims were thrown from the vehicle and landed in a ditch.

Of the 18 injured, three were initially in critical condition, but they have since been upgraded to serious, officials said. Three more are in fair condition and the rest have lesser injuries.

The bus, operated by Autobuses Coordinados USA, was heading to Washington state on State Route 99. It was approaching Livingston, Calif., a farming and industrial town of about 13,000, where it had been scheduled to change drivers.

A passenger headed from Mexico to her home in Pasco, Wash., said moments before the crash it appeared the driver was trying to pass another vehicle that he apparently expected to yield, but it wouldn’t let him merge.

“It kind of ran him off the road,” Nakia Coleman told Washington’s Tri-City Herald newspaper.

California Highway Patrol Officer Moises Onsurez said the bus suddenly veered sharply off the highway, adding investigators are still attempting to determine why.