Driver of semi-truck involved in crash that killed 13 speaks out

A deadly bus crash killed ten women and three men, and injured 31 more, early Sunday morning.

It happened around 5 a.m. on the westbound side of Interstate 10 near Desert Hot Springs in the Coachella Valley.

“In almost 35 years, I’ve never been to a crash were there’s been 13 confirmed fatalities, so it’s tough,” said Chief Jim Abele of the California Highway Patrol at a 1:30 p.m. press conference. “It’s tough for all of us.”

The USA Holiday tour bus was carrying 44 passengers as it headed back from the Red Earth Casino in Thermal when it slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer.

“The impact just, you know, hit me from behind and I just blacked out for a minute and when I gained my consciousness, I undid my seat belt and looked around. Thought I got ran over by something. That’s when I got out of my truck,” the driver of the big-rig who was only identified as Bruce, told taxi-driver David Hirshfield after being released from the hospital Sunday.

He went on to say he feels blessed to be alive and is praying for the families of passengers that did not make it. Bruce said he got out of his truck and tried help but he too was injured. He was hospitalized, but was released Sunday.

The CHP said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

“The bus had been inspected by highway patrol inspectors in 2014, 2015, and as late as April 2016,” Abele said.

It passed all three inspections.

During a news briefing at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, the designated trauma center in the Valley and which took in 14 trauma patients from the crash, trauma surgeon Dr. Ricard Townsend said he had never seen such a situation. He said the injuries were different due to the high speed and slow-motion deceleration, and that the bus collided with the collapsible back end of the tractor-trailer.

“The types of injuries we saw were actually unique. When you usually see someone involved in a high speed motor vehicle crash, the things you see are big time broken bones,” Townsend explained. “This is not the circumstances we were faced with. Most of the victims were unrestrained and thrown through the air and ended up sustaining facial trauma.”

Townsend added that there were very few bone breaks or brain injuries in Sunday’s crash. He said there were some spinal injuries, mostly facial trauma. Plastic surgeons had been called in to perform surgery on some of the crash victims.

Townsend said the day started with organized chaos as the victims began to come in to the medical center and that the influx of patients fortuitously coincided with a shift change, which allowed some staff to stay longer and fresh employees to join in.

He also attributed a relative smooth triage center to previous training and experience of the staff.

“Training, experience and know-how really came through,” Townsend said. “Planning for disasters, planning for mass casualties, is really something that everybody needs to do.”

If you have any information on the collision, the CHP Indio Area has set up a hot line, The CHP Indio Area has set up a hotline for the public to call and provide information at (760) 772-8900.

To learn how to donate blood to the victims, visit https://giftoflife.lstream.org/donor/schedules/geo.