ASHLAND, OREGON - JUNE 19, 2019: A tourist boards a chartered MCI tour bus in front of a hotel in Ashland, Oregon. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – A devastating early-morning crash on Sunday left one person dead and 32 others injured after a tour bus collided with a disabled SUV on a Los Angeles-area freeway, officials confirmed.
The collision occurred just after 5:00 a.m. on State Route 60 in Hacienda Heights, roughly 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the SUV, a Nissan Pathfinder, had become disabled in a westbound lane of the freeway for reasons still under investigation. A tour bus carrying 63 people then slammed into the rear of the stationary vehicle.
The impact caused the SUV to erupt in flames, killing the driver—its sole occupant—at the scene. The identity of the victim has not yet been released. The fire did not spread to the bus, but the front of the bus was severely damaged, with a shattered windshield and twisted metal visible in footage released by the CHP.
Officer Zachary Salazar of the CHP stated that 32 people aboard the bus were transported to area hospitals. Two of those individuals were listed in critical condition, while the rest suffered moderate to minor injuries. Another 31 passengers were able to leave the scene in a second bus dispatched to assist.
A passenger on the tour bus, Joe Runnel, described the harrowing aftermath to KTLA: “I was thrown from the back seat of the bus to the floor about three or four seats down. Glass was on me… there was a lot of hollering. People were begging for mercy.”
The bus was traveling from Indio, near Palm Springs, to Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood when the crash occurred. Initially, law enforcement officials had reported that the bus had departed from Morongo, but later clarified the point of origin.
After the initial collision, the bus veered across several lanes of traffic before slamming into a guardrail along the right shoulder of the freeway. Authorities believe neither drugs nor alcohol played a role in the crash.
The incident prompted an immediate closure of multiple westbound lanes between Azusa Avenue and Hacienda Boulevard. While some lanes reopened around 7:30 a.m., the full freeway was not operational until late morning as investigators examined the scene.
CHP and the Los Angeles County Fire Department continue to investigate the cause of the crash, including why the SUV became disabled in the first place. A final report is pending.
