More than 40 festival bus shuttle drivers treated for food poisoning
Music festival season in the valley could not be possible without the countless bus drivers that take festival-goers to and from the festival grounds.
Riverside County Fire Department dispatchers got reports after midnight on Monday of several sub-contracted festival shuttle drivers becoming ill with food poisoning at the county fairgrounds in Indio.
"We received multiple 911 calls for shuttle bus drivers in two locations that were experiencing signs and symptoms that are consistent with an acute foodborne illness," said Cal Fire incident commander division chief Bryan White. "All nonlife-threatening, all consistent with an acute foodborne illness, nausea, vomiting, those types of symptoms."
CAL FIRE / Riverside County Fire Department handled the incident along with Indio Police and Goldenvoice Productions.
"Goldenvoice, they've made some significant improvements this year into their command post, and the way that we're able to effectively communicate amongst each other and I think that that was a key to our success," said White.
First responders went to multiple locations across the valley to help affected bus drivers and took them to local hospitals.
"We had county fairgrounds, we had the shuttle bus lot, and then various hotels and pickup and drop off points throughout the valley," said White.
News Channel 3 reached out to local hospitals to find out how many patients were admitted in relation to the incident. There were 46 patients in total:
- Eisenhower Hospital: 23
- Desert Regional Medical Center: 12
- JFK Memorial Hospital: 11
“Our public safety agencies and event organizers constantly train for incidents like these so that we are prepared to respond to, triage, and treat patients, and transport as soon as possible,” said White.
Riverside County Public Health is currently investigating what caused the drivers to get food poisoning.
"Our objective, if we can, is to find the source of the illness," said Riverside County spokesperson Jose Arballo. "Part of this is also interviews with those who became ill to try and get a good idea of what might be the source of the sickness."
Cal Fire said no festival-goers were affected.
Stay with News Channel 3 for the latest updates.
