A tour bus and a semi-truck crashed on a highway in southern California early on Sunday, killing 13 people, the California highway patrol said.
A maintenance crew had 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, which was carrying 44 passengers to Los Angeles from the Red Earth Casino in Thermal, California, was going much faster than the truck.
“The speed of bus was so significant that the trailer itself entered about 15 feet into the bus,” Abele told reporters. “You can see it was a substantial impact.”It was not known if alcohol, drugs or fatigue played a role in the crash about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, but the bus was inspected in April and had no mechanical issues, Abele said.
The bus driver was killed, and the truck driver received minor injuries
Photographs showed the front of the bus pushed into the semi-truck’s trailer after the wreck on Interstate 10 in Desert Hot Springs, near the resort town of Palm Springs.
Rescue workers used tow trucks to lift the trailer to provide easier access and pull the semi-truck forward, the Desert Sun newspaper reported.
At least 30 victims were taken to hospitals. Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs received 14 patients: five in critical condition, three in serious condition and six with minor injuries, hospital director of marketing Rich Ramhoff said.
Eleven people with minor injuries were sent to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said spokesperson Lee Rice. JFK Medical Center in Indio received five patients, all with minor injuries, chief development officer Linda Evans said.
The cause of the crash was not yet known. The highway patrol said all westbound lanes of the highway were closed and traffic was being diverted. The driver of the bus was one of the owners of the tour company, Los Angeles-based USA Holiday.
The company has one vehicle and one driver, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Records on the agency’s website show the company had no crashes and one inspection in the two years before 22 October and had a satisfactory safety rating.
A phone and Facebook message left for the company was not immediately returned. Its Facebook page had postings about trips leaving the Los Angeles area to casinos around the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas.
