Last Updated on May 13, 2022 by CCAR Staff
The dozens of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival shuttle bus drivers who were sickened after eating a catered meal were poisoned by toxins produced by a bacteria, the Riverside County Public Health Department said Friday, May 13.
Investigators were unable to determine which food was contaminated or how it happened, said Shane Reichardt, a spokesman for the Riverside County Emergency Management Department.
The bacteria, identified by a state health laboratory as staphylococcal aureus enterotoxin, was found in a container of food taken home by a Los Angeles County resident. But because the food items were mixed together, it was not clear which item was infected.
Staph can develop in certain foods left at room temperature for more than two hours, the county said, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reichardt said it wasn’t clear whether that happened in the case of the Coachella meal.
Some 40 drivers complaining of nausea, cramping, vomiting and diarrhea were hospitalized in Riverside County on April 25 after eating the dinner the previous night, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said. Others who live elsewhere may also have sought treatment, the county said.
It did not appear that any festival-goers were affected by the illness, the county said.
