A tour bus crowded with senior citizens from Los Angeles collided with a fire engine Tuesday morning on busy Interstate 10 in Ontario, killing one passenger, injuring three firefighters and sending dozens of others to area hospitals.
Most of the injured were passengers who boarded the bus in L.A.'s Chinatown or the San Gabriel Valley on their way to Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio. Some, on fixed incomes, were taking the trip just to collect $10 in free casino chips, passengers said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday March 17, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Bus collision -- An article in some editions of Wednesday's California section about a bus colliding with a firetruck on the San Bernardino Freeway in Ontario spelled the last name of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration spokesman Bill MacLeod as Macleod.
The 75-year-old Rosemead man who died in the collision had been sitting in the front row of the bus, which was so mangled that firefighters used the "jaws of life" to extricate five passengers, a witness said. The man killed was Kau Leung, a well-known retired Cantonese chef in Chinatown, his family said.
The California Highway Patrol shut down the San Bernardino Freeway in both directions for almost four hours after the 7:30 a.m. collision, creating a traffic nightmare for thousands of commuters, who watched as ambulances and at least two helicopters arrived to take the injured to hospitals.
"We had 50-something injured people on the bus, fellow firefighters we know and work with who were hurt ... gridlock, with the freeway shut down, people landing helicopters and staging ambulance pickups," said Deputy Chief Bob Snow of the Ontario Fire Department. "It was ... something nobody ever wants to respond to."
The accident occurred when an Upland Fire Department engine responding to an earlier accident, directly across the freeway divider in the opposing shoulder, tried to merge into the eastbound carpool lane just past the 4th Street exit, colliding with the bus, said Highway Patrol Officer Lee Nuez.
The bus, operated by H & C Paradise Tour, Inc. of Los Angeles, skidded to a stop against the concrete median. The firetruck, its front cab smashed, veered across four lanes of traffic and slammed into a concrete barrier on the right shoulder, leaving its fire hose unraveled across the eastbound lanes.
"Fault is unknown," said CHP spokesman Tony Nguyen.
The fire engine had its emergency lights on before the collision, but it was not clear whether its siren was activated, and the bus driver was traveling "normal freeway speed," Nguyen said.
