At least eight people have died in a bus accident in California

YUCAIPA, Calif. (AP) — At least eight and as many as 10 people were killed and more than three dozen injured when a bus spun out of control on a mountain road in Southern California, rammed a car, rolled over and crashed into a pickup truck, authorities said.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez said the number of eight confirmed deaths is expected to rise because the coroner has just begun removing bodies from the mangled vehicle and also removing the bodies of those ejected wearing yellow blankets were covered.

“It appears that speed was a factor in this collision,” Lopez said. Investigators will determine whether a mechanical failure or driver error was the cause, he said. The driver survived.

Authorities have not yet received the passenger list from the bus, Lopez said.

The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. about 80 miles east of Los Angeles and resulted in State Route 38 being littered with debris, the bus traveling across two lanes of traffic and its front end being crushed.

The bus was on its way back to Tijuana, Mexico, Lopez said. It struck a Saturn sedan and crashed into a Ford pickup, he said. One person in the pickup was injured. The fate of the passengers in the car was unclear, but at least two people were inside, Lopez said.

California Department of Transportation spokeswoman Michelle Profant said the scene was shocking.

“It’s really a mess up there with body parts,” she said.

The bus driver told investigators that the bus had brake problems on the trip down the mountain, Lopez said.

The bus said it was operated by Scapadas Magicas LLC, a company based in National City, California. Federal transportation records show that the company is licensed to carry passengers in interstate traffic and that there have been no accidents in the past two years.

A call to the company was not immediately returned.

Jordi Garcia, manager of InterBus Tours, said his company operated the trip on Sunday. He told UT San Diego that 38 people left Tijuana at 5 a.m. to ski at Big Bear.

“According to our information, the brakes of the bus failed and the accident occurred,” he said.

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

The patients were taken to several area hospitals with minor to life-threatening injuries.

Two women were in critical condition and two other patients were in stable condition at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Monday morning. Two other women were released early Monday. At Redlands Community Hospital, one patient was in critical condition and five other patients were in mild to moderate condition with injuries ranging from lacerations to broken bones, spokeswoman Nikyah Thomas-Pfeiffer said. At Loma Linda Medical Center, a man and a girl under 18 were in critical condition, a man was in serious condition and a woman and a girl under 18 were in fair condition, spokesman Herbert Atienza said.

The California accident came less than a day after a bus carrying 42 high school students and their chaperones crashed into an overpass in Boston. According to Massachusetts State Police, 35 people were injured and the driver steered the bus onto a road with a height limit.