Tragic end to holiday
13 killed after tour bus crashes into truck on LA highway.
PAlM SPRINGS: A tour bus returning home to Los Angeles from a casino trip plowed into the back of a container truck on a California highway, killing 13 people and injuring 31 others, authorities said.
Maintenance crew slowed down traffic on Interstate 10 before the vehicles crashed, just north of the desert resort town of Palm Springs, California Highway Patrol Border Division Chief Jim Abele said.
The work had gone on for hours without problems, he said.
Abele said the bus carrying 44 passengers was going much faster than the truck, though a trauma surgeon said the injuries he saw indicated it was slowing down at the point of impact.
“The speed of bus was so significant that the trailer itself entered about 15 feet into the bus,” Abele told reporters.
It was not known if alcohol, drugs or fatigue played a role in the crash about 161 km east of Los Angeles, but the bus had no mechanical issues, Abele said. The bus driver was killed, and the truck driver received minor injuries.
Passengers told officials that most people were asleep when the crash occurred at 5.17 am.
Many suffered facial injuries, a telltale sign they were not wearing seat belts, he said, calling the injuries unusual for this type of crash.
CHP Officer Stephanie Hamilton told the Desert Sun in Palm Springs earlier Sunday that the driver was one of the owners of tour bus company, USA Holiday.
Sonia Anderson, the bus owner’s neighbour, described the man and his family as kind and close-knit.