Fatal Collision on Mother’s Day Morning Leaves 1 Dead, 32 Injured and Hospitalized Involving a Tour Bus

A person died and 32 people were hospitalized, including two in critical condition, after a tour bus crash on the 60 Freeway in Hacienda Heights early Sunday morning.

According to Los Angeles County Fire Department Public Information Officer Fred Fielding, units were dispatched at 5:07 a.m. regarding a traffic collision involving fire near Hacienda Boulevard and arrived on scene within minutes to find that a tour bus was involved in a crash with a vehicle, believed to be a Nissan SUV.

The Nissan was fully engulfed when crews arrived, authorities later stated on social media.

One person died in the crash, and it was later confirmed that it was the driver of the Nissan, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle.

CHP Officer Zachary Salazar told KTLA 5’s Erin Myers at 7 a.m. that, due to the impact of the collision, the Nissan burst into flames, leaving the driver trapped.

Salazar elaborated that there were 63 people on the tour bus counting the driver, and a total of 32 were transported to area hospitals in various conditions, including two in critical condition who were among the first to be taken from the scene.

The other 31 passengers were uninjured and allowed to leave.

The tour bus, which was traveling from the Morongo Casino to Koreatown, sustained significant front end damage as well as a shattered windshield and ended up on the shoulder as a result of the collision.

A news release issued later on Sunday morning by CHP officials stated that officers’ preliminary investigation found that the Nissan had become disabled for unknown reasons in the #1 lane.

The bus then crashed into the rear of the disabled Nissan before veering to the right across all lanes and colliding with the raised metal and wood guardrail along the right shoulder.

One passenger onboard the bus, Joe Runnel, said that he was thrown from his seat to the floor and that people were “begging for mercy” in the moments after the crash.

“I was thrown from the back seat of the bus to the floor about three or four seats down,” Runnel said. “Glass was on me…there was a lot of hollering.”

According to a witness who was driving on the westbound 60 at the time of the crash, the situation unfolded “so quick” and that “everyone tried to stop, but there was just not enough time.”

The fact that the crash occurred so early on Mother’s Day adds to the “catastrophe,” the witness, a man named Cesar, told Myers an hour after the crash.

“It happened so quickly…a lot of chaos and then just red lights,” he said. “It’s going to be very [catastrophic] especially because it’s Mother’s Day…it’s very sad that it had to start like this.”

The westbound 60 Freeway will be closed between Azusa Avenue and Hacienda Boulevard indefinitely, although authorities had some lanes open by 7:30 a.m.