Calif man accused of ramming bus pleads not guilty
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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.
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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.