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Official: Tires on bus in crash unsafe

But cause of wreck in which 13 died is still unknown

By AMY TAXIN and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
Published: October 25, 2016, 9:58pm
3 Photos
Emergency personnel work the scene where a tour bus crashed into the rear of a semi-truck on westbound Interstate 10, just north of the desert resort town of Palm Springs, in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Multiple deaths and injuries were reported.
Emergency personnel work the scene where a tour bus crashed into the rear of a semi-truck on westbound Interstate 10, just north of the desert resort town of Palm Springs, in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Multiple deaths and injuries were reported. (Colin Atagi/The Desert Sun via AP) (RODRIGO PENA/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

LOS ANGELES — The treads on half the tires of a tour bus that slammed into a tractor-trailer on a desert freeway, killing 13 people, were worn down to an unsafe level, a federal investigator said Tuesday as authorities worked to determine the cause of one of California’s deadliest highway crashes.

The condition of the four faulty tires meant the 1996 bus was out of compliance with federal standards and could have been taken out of service, Earl Weener, a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference in Palm Desert, near the site of Sunday’s crash that also injured 31 people on Interstate 10.

Despite the discovery, the cause of the crash remained undetermined and the NTSB was expected to take about a year to complete its investigation.

The California Highway Patrol has said there was no indication that the driver, Teodulo Elias Vides, applied his brakes before hitting the truck that was going about 5 mph because of utility work being done in the area. The bus was traveling at freeway speed, officials said.

Vides was among those killed in the crash.

Records kept by the CHP show that USA Holiday had been deemed unsatisfactory on several levels in the past, though it had not received that rating since 2010, when an unnamed company driver received an “unsatisfactory” rating overall and in relation to “controlled substance and alcohol testing results,” the records show.

An unsatisfactory rating could be a paperwork issue or a genuine safety concern, and because the CHP retains records for only four years, none of the original reports from 2010 and before on USA Holiday still exist, the agency said.

Vides’ overall inspection record was not alarming, a top CHP safety manager told The Associated Press.

“This is not out of the norm. Commercial motor vehicle operation and the requirements that go along with that are complex and extensive,” said Cullen Sisskind, manager of the CHP’s motor carrier safety program.

USA Holiday had past problems but then appears to have self-corrected “and has had a very good record” over the past few years, Sisskind said.

From 2005 through 2008, the company received a cluster of unsatisfactory ratings for maintenance, equipment and issues involving a driver. In 2011, Vides was pulled over for going more than 80 mph in a 70 mph zone a few miles from where Sunday’s crash was.

He was also cited for driving with a suspended license, but the charge was dropped when he later produced a valid license, according to court records.

Vides, listed as the company’s only driver in federal and state records, liked to joke with customers and playfully urged them during gambling trips to casinos to save enough money for hamburgers, said Alba Martinez, a former customer. He told customers in Spanish as they returned to Los Angeles at sunrise from their weekend jaunts, “We’ve arrived at reality.”

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