Four people recently died in a tour bus accident near the California-Arizona border. CBS Los Angeles reports that the accident happened at 2 a.m. last Wednesday outside of Blythe, a town in Riverside County. Nearly two dozen people were injured and four people were killed.
The California Highway Patrol reports that this chain-reaction crash closed the highway in both directions until 6:30 p.m. that evening.
The accident started with a big rig truck jackknifed into the median of the 10 Freeway, spilling metal pipes onto the highway. Reports indicate that the big rig was attempting to pass a slower moving vehicle when it hit the median.
Several cars crashed into the pipes and then rolled into oncoming traffic, including a tour bus which subsequently rolled off of the highway and landed on its side.
The tour bus was operated by El Paso-Los Angeles Limousine Express and was carrying 32 people when it hit pipes which rolled onto its lane. The bus rolled down an embankment and landed on its side.
“I hit the ceiling and when I came back down, I landed on top of a guy that was dead,” one passenger told reporters. All four people who died in this accident were on the bus.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the bus company has operated across the Southwest since 1966 and has no significant safety violations in at least the last two years.