19 injured as tour bus en route to 'Dr. Phil' hits tree

LOS ANGELES -- A tour bus full of people on their way to a taping of the "Dr. Phil" TV show crashed into a tree at a Hollywood church Wednesday, authorities said. Nineteen people suffered mostly minor injuries.

The chartered bus with 41 people on board was getting off a freeway around 10:15 a.m. when its brakes malfunctioned, police Lt. Roger Mora said.

The bus hit a parked car, crashed through a fence and hit a tree in the yard of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

The passengers never got to see Dr. Phil McGraw's self-help TV show.

The show planned to provide the bus passengers with lunches and invite them back for the taping of the 1,000th "Dr. Phil" episode, spokeswoman Theresa Corigliano said.

Berit Cole, office manager for the bus' operator, Bus America Inc., said the company would investigate the cause of the crash.

The bus will be out of service until the company determines what happened, Cole said.

When a second bus arrived to take the riders back to Ventura County, passengers refused to board it, Humphrey said. Instead, friends and relatives were expected to take the riders home.

The show chartered the bus to take fans from Camarillo to the day's second taping of the show, Corigliano said.

"We're grateful that people are all right, and we hope that their next trip back to Dr. Phil will be less eventful and much more fun," she said. "His thoughts are with them."