Last Updated on October 24, 2016 by CCAR Staff
INDIO >> The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what may have caused a bus carrying 43 passengers to crash into a big-rig Sunday on the 10 Freeway near Palm Springs, resulting in 13 deaths.
During a news conference Monday in Indio, board member Earl Weener would not speculate on what the cause may have been.
CHP Indio Division Commander Jim Abele said with the investigation is in its earliest stages, “we can’t definitively say what caused the crash.”
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Weener said a team of investigators from as far away as Washington, D.C., and Texas will remain in the area for about a week compiling evidence. The bus is currently at an evidence storage tow yard, CHP officials said.
Weener urged any witnesses to the crash who haven’t come forward yet to call the CHP at 760-772-8900.
The investigation will take a multi-faceted approach, he said, with the investigative team splitting up into four “disciplines”: human factors, highway factors, vehicle factors and motor carrier factors.
Investigators looking into the human factors will focus on Teodulo Elias Vides, the driver. They will check out his background, experience and licensing, and whether he was fatigued or had been drinking.
The highway factors investigated will include the roadway configuration, the flow of traffic, the lighting and whether signs were clear.
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The vehicle-factor investigators will check out the condition of the bus prior to the crash and whether it was safe to drive. Abele mentioned that the bus, a 1996 MCI motor coach, had passed routine inspections.
The motor carrier factors group will investigate whether Vides’ charter bus company, USA Holiday, was operating legally, and if the bus had any sort of onboard recording device. Officials said the 1996 bus was the company’s only vehicle.
The bus plowed into the back of a semi at 5:17 a.m. Sunday while both vehicles were headed west on the 10 and were about 2 miles east of the Highway 62 exit. Traffic had slowed while the CHP conducted a traffic break ahead, and the semi was going only about 5 mph, the CHP has said.
• Related Story: 13 killed, 31 injured in tour bus crash on 10 Freeway near Palm Springs
The bus, going significantly faster, rear-ended the semi with such force that it went about 15 feet into the trailer.
On Sunday the CHP said it didn’t know yet whether drugs, alcohol or driver fatigue may have played a role in the crash.
The bus was headed back to the Los Angeles area from Red Earth Casino in Thermal, and had made it about 35 miles that morning before the crash.
Thirteen people including Vides died, and 31 were injured, five critically. Many of those who died are believed to have been at the front of the bus, and most of the passengers were asleep at the time, survivors told the CHP.
Six injured patients remain hospitalized at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, which took in the most seriously injured victims. Four of the remaining patients are in critical condition in the intensive-care unit, one is in serious condition and one is in fair condition.
Two patients in good condition remain at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, while John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio has discharged all of the patients it treated.
Authorities advised the families of people who may have been involved in the bus crash to contact hospitals to see if their relatives had been treated there:
• Desert Regional Medical Center: 760-323-6511, 1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
• John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital: 760-347-6191, 47111 Monroe St., Indio
• Eisenhower Medical Center: 760-340-3911, 39000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage
The Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau has established a “family assistance center” for people unable to locate their loved ones. It is at 800 S. Redlands Ave. in Perris, and can be reached by phone at 951-443-2300.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Staff writer Richard Brooks contributed to this report.
