Crashed bus owner failed one-third of safety inspections

YUCAIPA, Calif. The company linked to a tour bus involved in a deadly crash in Southern California failed more than a third of federal vehicle safety inspections in the last two years.

U.S. government records show that buses operated by the firm Scapadas Magicas of National City, Calif., flunked 36 percent of random inspections on their vehicles — in some cases for brake and tire problems.

That's higher than the national average for similar companies — a 21 percent failure rate.

Records also show the company had no crashes in the past two years.

The California company had an overall "satisfactory" rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but records show three-quarters of similar companies had better safety records.

Lettering on the 1996 bus indicates it was operated by Scapadas Magicas.

At least seven people were killed in Sunday night's crash. More than three dozen people were injured, and at least 17 were still hospitalized, including at least five in critical condition. One is a girl.

Authorities lowered the death count from 8 to 7 on Monday.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to the scene.

CBS Station KCBS reports that the bus, carrying dozens of men, women and children from Tijuana, was on its way back to Mexico Sunday evening after a day in Big Bear when the driver lost control just after 6:30 p.m., about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Investigators say the bus flipped and landed on a pickup truck towing a trailer. A black Saturn was also rear-ended.

The crash left State Route 38 littered with body parts and debris, and the bus sideways across both lanes with its windows blown out, front end crushed and part of the roof peeled back like a tin can.

One person in the pickup truck was injured. The fate of the passengers in the car was not clear, but at least two people were in the Saturn, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez.

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Investigators will determine if mechanical failure or driver error was to blame. The bus driver, who survived but was injured, told investigators the vehicle had brake problems.

"It appears speed was a factor in this collision," said Lopez.

Crews worked through the night to recover the dead, but one body remained aboard the bus early Monday, said Rocky Shaw, a San Bernardino County coroner's investigator.

Officials hadn't been able to retrieve the body because the front end of the bus was dangling over the edge of the roadside.

No one answered the door at the Scapadas Magicas office in a sprawling complex that houses more than 1,300 storage lockers and about 30 small offices. Greg Etter, general manager of Acropolis Space Center, said the company didn't run buses out of the facility. He declined to comment further on the tenant.

Jordi Garcia, a manager for InterBus Tours, said his company organized Sunday's trip. He told U-T San Diego that 38 people departed Tijuana at 5 a.m. for a day of skiing at Big Bear.

Investigators had not yet obtained the passenger list from inside the bus.

InterBus Tours offered condolences to all those affected through a statement posted on its Facebook page, which also had a posting from last week advertising the trip to Big Bear, a lakeside recreation area at an elevation of 6,750 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains.

It noted the vehicle was subleased and has insurance to cover such an accident.

After the crash, it took nearly two hours to clear all the people who could be transported to hospitals and go through the wreckage, said Kathleen Opliger, incident commander and San Bernardino County fire battalion chief.

Route 38 runs through San Bernardino National Forest to Big Bear. The accident occurred as the bus was headed south and leaving the forest.

Patients were taken to several hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening.

The California crash came less than a day after a bus carrying 42 high school students and their chaperones slammed into an overpass in Boston. Massachusetts state police said 35 people were injured after the driver had directed the bus onto a road with a height limit.