At least 8 dead in California tour bus crash
French highway service workers remove belongings from the ground before towing a bus out of the road, on September 2, 2012, after it crashed earlier along the A8 highway, carrying about fifty Romanian nationals, nearby the resting area of the southern French city of Vidauban. 47 children were killed in a bus crash in Egypt Saturday.
PETALUMA, California — A tour bus headed to Mexico from California crashed near Los Angeles late Sunday, killing at least eight people, according to Reuters.
Details on the crash were not immediately available, but local officials cited by Reuters said 35 people have been hospitalized for injuries, several reportedly in critical condition. More bodies could be found as authorities work to clear the area, which the Associated Press said had been "littered with body parts and debris."
California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez told AP the bus flipped over after rear-ending a Saturn sedan on State Route 38 late Sunday.
The bus driver was injured but survived the crash and told authorities the InterBus Tours vehicle had brake issues, said AP.
The bus was headed back to Tijuana, Mexico, after a ski trip in Big Bear Lake, California Highway Patrol Sergeant Billy Rangel told Reuters.
The bus had failed 36% of its vehicle safety inspections, according to US government data obtained by AP on Monday.
That percentage is higher than that of similar companies' average score of 25% percent, said AP, but the vehicle was given a "satisfactory" rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The California-based tour company, Scapadas Magicas, has not publicly commented on the incident.
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