Tour bus slams into truck on slowed-down highway, killing 13

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- A tour bus returning home to Los Angeles from a casino trip plowed into the back of a semi-truck on a California highway early Sunday, killing 13 people and injuring 31 others, authorities said.

A maintenance crew had slowed 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 carrying 44 passengers was going much faster than the truck, though a trauma surgeon said the injuries he saw indicated it was slowing at the point of impact.

"The speed of bus was so significant that the trailer itself entered about 15 feet into the bus," Abele said. "You can see it was a substantial impact."

It was not known whether 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.

The bus was coming from Red Earth Casino in the unincorporated community of Thermal and was about 35 miles into its 135-mile trip back to Los Angeles.

CHP officers had slowed traffic to allow Southern California Edison workers to string wires across the freeway, Abele said.

Passengers told officials most people were asleep when the crash occurred at 5:17 a.m. Abele said it appeared the 1996 bus didn't have seat belts and likely didn't have a black box newer vehicles feature.

The bus also was inspected in 2014 and 2015, the CHP said. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show it had no crashes in the two years before and had a satisfactory safety rating.

The front of the bus crumpled into the semi-truck's trailer, and debris was scattered across the highway. Firefighters used ladders to climb into the bus' windows to remove bodies, and tow trucks lifted the trailer to make it easier to reach the bus' demolished front.

Fourteen patients were sent to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. Five were admitted in critical condition but were stable and in intensive care Sunday afternoon, said Dr. Ricard Townsend, a trauma surgeon. Seven others had been released.

Many suffered facial injuries, a sign they were not wearing seat belts, he said. He called the injuries unusual for this type of crash.

"It seemed as though most of the victims were unrestrained and were therefore flown through the air and ended up sustaining facial trauma," Townsend said.

Doctors treated several spinal fractures but few other bone injuries.

Two other hospitals received patients with minor injuries.

CHP Officer Stephanie Hamilton told the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs earlier Sunday the driver was one of the owners of tour bus company, USA Holiday, based near Los Angeles. The company has one vehicle and one driver, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

A phone message left for the company was not returned. A Facebook message from USA Holiday said it did not have much information about the crash.

The company says on social media it has more than 25 years of experience traveling to casinos in Southern California. It posts about trips leaving the Los Angeles area to casinos around the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas.