13 hurt as tour bus crashes on California freeway
A casino bus driver with 37 passengers aboard crashed on a freeway offramp in Baldwin Park on Monday, leaving two people with moderate injuries and eleven with minor injuries.
The driver was apparently speeding and lost control of the bus on the Baldwin Park Boulevard exit from the westbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway about 4:30 a.m., according to California Highway Patrol Officer Christopher Cracraft.
The bus was returning from Fantasy Island Casino in Indio when driver Zhi Guang Li lost control, veered off the road and crashed into a storm ditch, chain link fence and light post, according to the CHP.
According to the accident report, Li and his 37 passengers were trapped in the wreckage for about an hour.
Two people suffered moderate injuries, and eleven people had minor bumps and
bruises, Cracraft said. The injured passengers were taken to hospitals, and the others were taken to their final destinations.
The offramp was closed for about four hours so the bus could be removed from the ditch, the CHP said. About 150 feet of chain link fence was taken out by the bus, raising concerns that animals or pedestrians could get onto the freeway.
The accident was the third involving casino buses in Southern California
recently.
Tayde Murguia, 64, of Van Nuys, died and 21 other people were injured Thursday when a bus headed from Los Angeles to the Valley View Casino in San Diego County crashed on rain-slick Interstate 15 near Bonsall.
The same day also on I-15, a bus from Pala Casino operated by Sina Coach Tour of Walnut crashed and overturned on a freeway in Corona, killing a 91- year-old Khang Tien of Midway and injuring 44 people.
