Last Updated on January 13, 2023 by CCAR Staff
SAN BERNARDINO >> The driver of a Mexican tour bus that crashed in Yucaipa in 2013 and killed eight people pleaded not guilty Thursday tofelony charges.
Norberto Bravo Perez, 55, who was being held at West Valley Detention Center, appeared via a video feed inside a San Bernardino County Superior Court to eight counts of felony vehicular manslaughter in San Bernardino Superior Court.
According to a criminal complaint, Perez was driving “in an unlawful manner, and with gross negligence” on Feb. 3, 2013,
If convicted, he could face a maximum of 15 years in state prison.
The hearing itself was quick, inside an empty courtroom at the Justice Center.
Perez’ words in Spanish were translated by an interpreter and the court commissioner appointed a public defender to his case.
After years of investigating, officials charged Perez on Nov. 3, Chris Lee, spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said.
He was arrested Wednesday morning in San Ysidro.
Perez was driving the bus for Scapadas Magicas (Magical Escapes), a company based out of National City, on Feb. 3, 2013, officials said. A total of 38 tourists, many of them doctors and nurses working at a Tijuana hospital, boarded the bus for a daylong trip to the snowy San Bernardino Mountains.
As the group returned from their trip, investigators determined Perez lost control of the bus, sending it into a Saturn carrying three passengers before veering off the road and toppling onto its side.
As it slid, the bus struck a boulder on the side of the road, knocking the bus upright again moments before it crashed into a Ford pickup traveling north in the oncoming lane.
Forty-three people, including at least two children, were involved in the crash: 38 passengers plus Perez, and four others from the two other vehicles. Six passengers were thrown from the bus.
Perez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, which the court’s commissioner raised from $800,000, and is scheduled to be back in court Dec. 1.
