PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- A tour bus slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer rig on a Southern California highway early Sunday, killing 13 people and injuring at least 31 others, some critically, authorities said.
A maintenance crew had slowed down 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.
"The speed of bus was so significant that the trailer itself entered about 15 feet into the bus," he said at a news conference. "You can see it was a substantial impact."
Abele said it was not known whether alcohol, drugs or fatigue played a role in the crash about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. The USA Holiday tour bus was returning to Los Angeles after a visit to the Red Earth Casino in Thermal, about 25 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The bus driver was killed, and the truck driver suffered minor injuries.
Passengers told officials that most people were asleep when the crash occurred at 5:17 a.m. Abele said he didn't believe the 1996 bus had seat belts and likely didn't have a black box outfitted in newer vehicles.
The bus was inspected in 2014, 2015 and this year and didn't have any mechanical issues, Abele said. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show it had no crashes in the two years before Saturday and had a satisfactory safety rating.
The front of the bus had crumpled into the semi-truck's trailer and debris was scattered across the key route through Southern California. 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, whose front end was demolished.
Fourteen patients were sent to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, the area's only trauma center. Five were admitted in critical condition but were stable and in intensive care by Sunday afternoon, said Dr. Ricard Townsend, a trauma surgeon. Seven others had been released.
Doctors treated several spinal fractures but few other bone injuries. The wounds indicate the bus was slowing down when it struck, Townsend said.
Two other hospitals received patients with minor injuries.
Highway patrol officer Stephanie Hamilton earlier told the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs that the driver was one of the owners of 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 immediately returned. A Facebook message from USA Holiday said it did not have much information about the crash.
The bus owner's neighbor said she'd often see a tour bus with the sign "USA Holiday" parked on the street in front of his apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Alhambra, about 7 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
Sonia Anderson said the family that lived there -- a man, woman and their college student son -- had lived in the apartment for about 17 years. She said the father generally drove the bus and his wife and son would sometimes travel on the bus with him.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to California to investigate the crash, board spokesman Eric Weiss said.
It comes two years after a FedEx truck veered across an interstate median north of Sacramento and slammed into a bus full of high school students, killing 10 people. In August, a bus in central California hit a highway sign post that tore through the vehicle and left four people dead.
A Section on 10/24/2016