Owner of Van in Fatal Crash May Not Have Had Permits

Investigators probing the van crash that killed six passengers and injured six others said the tour company that owned the van apparently had none of the required government permits and that records of vehicles and drivers could not be found by an inspector who visited the firm’s Los Angeles office Thursday.

“All we found were empty file folders,” said Sandra Browne, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator based in Los Angeles. “There were no records on buses or drivers.”

Browne said she was looking for any documents that could assist in the investigation of the crash. Aided by an employee of the firm, Doremi Tours, who told her the records had been there previously, Browne said she searched fruitlessly through file cabinets and drawers. Browne declined to speculate on whether any records were removed or destroyed.

Investigators at Work

Teams of investigators from the safety board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the state Public Utilities Commission and the CHP were investigating the cause of the crash Thursday.

Spokesmen for these agencies said the company had failed to obtain required permits or file statements of insurance.

“This particular carrier, to the best of our knowledge, does not have operating authority from the ICC, the PUC or the California Highway Patrol,” said Al Palmer, motor carrier specialist for the CHP. The van, he added, “had passenger car plates on it . . . but was required to have commercial plates.”

Federal law requires tour operators who cross state lines to obtain a permit from the ICC. Tour operators who conduct business only in California have to register with the PUC. Such registration subjects the operators to periodic safety inspections by the CHP and others.

It also was disclosed Thursday that the driver of the van, Sung Il Kim, 31, of Los Angeles, has been cited twice for speeding in the Barstow area since January. According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, Kim was cited for driving 85 m.p.h. on Interstate 15 on Jan. 10. California Highway Patrol officials said Kim was alone in the van when the citation was given. Subsequently, CHP officials said, Kim was cited in the same van. Details of the second citation were not available.

In addition, DMV officials in Sacramento said Kim did not have the Class II driver’s license required of commercial bus drivers. The CHP said Kim carried only a Class III license, which permits him only to drive private automobiles, and not for hire.

The owner-operator of Doremi Tours, Ji Soo (Simon) Kim, not related to the driver, was reported by his attorney to be in Los Angeles on Thursday, but was unavailable for comment.

Not Sure of Number

Investigators said Thursday that they do not know how many vehicles the company owns or how many drivers it employs. The DMV has no vehicles registered to Doremi Tours. The van in the crash is registered to a Ji Soo Kim at the Doremi business address. The van in which driver Kim was cited was leased to Ji Soo Kim, according to the DMV.

The only employee at company headquarters Thursday was Joseph Ko. Ko told a reporter that Doremi Tours was opened last August by Ji Soo Kim, who formerly ran a car dealership.

Ko said the firm operated strictly as a tourist agency until last November, when it began to employ drivers to take small groups of people to Las Vegas and Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks. The clientele was virtually all Korean-American.

The company’s relationship with Las Vegas was evident throughout the small, red-tile-roofed building on a busy stretch of Olympic Boulevard near Vermont Avenue that is dominated by Korean businesses.

Gambling Scene

On one wall hung a blue felt blackjack table cover from the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino, which caters to Asian guests. Imitation $50 bills and winning blackjack hands were pinned onto the table cover. Above the cover was a large towel featuring five cards aligned in a royal flush.

The crash occurred at 11 a.m. Wednesday when the 14-seat van, which was returning to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, went out of control, overturned and smashed into a brushy center divider on Interstate 15 about 45 miles southwest of Las Vegas, authorities said.

CHP Sgt. James Pitsor said many of the 11 passengers were ejected from the van before it came to rest on the center divider.

Seat Belts Available

“Twelve people were in that vehicle, and there were seat belts available for all of them,” Pitsor said. “Had they had their seat belts on, deaths would have been prevented and injuries reduced.

Killed in the accident were one man, Bong Koo Kim, 72, and five women, Tae Soon Han, 61; Kwang Ok Suh, 68; Mal Yong Oh, 64; Chae Chung Kang, 72, and Chun Sul Cho, 65, authorities said. All were reported to be from Los Angeles.

As of Thursday night, two of the injured were at University Medical Center, Las Vegas, in critical condition. The driver, Kim, was listed in stable but guarded condition at Humana Hospital Sunrise in Las Vegas and was unavailable for comment.

CHP Lt. Gary Haley suggested that the driver may have become drowsy on the long and flat desert highway.

‘Highway Hypnosis’

“Quite often a person is alert one moment and drowsy the next,” he said. “We call it ‘highway hypnosis’ out here--and it is a common problem.”

One of the survivors, Ki Wan Chung, a 36-year-old businessman visiting Los Angeles from Philadelphia, said in an interview from his hospital bed that he took the two-day trip to Las Vegas at a round-trip fare of $10. He said the tour bus dropped off passengers at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. Many gambled all night and returned on another bus the next day.

Chung said he was sitting in the rear of the van when the accident occurred.

‘Turned Over at Least Twice’

“The driver went off the left pavement and, as women began to scream, he quickly swerved back onto the road,” Chung said. “But he swerved too quickly. The driver again cut hard to the left and zig-zagged. The van turned over at least twice.”

Ho Jin Kim, a 26-year-old Los Angeles man, was sleeping in the front passenger seat of the van and did not realize what was happening until the bus came to a halt.

“I looked up and saw that the driver had blood streaming from his head. . . . Smoke was coming out of the engine,” he said. “I kicked the door open and escaped.”

Yong Sang Hyung, 42, of Glendale was in the rear of the van trying to sleep and was knocked unconscious in the crash. None of the three estimated the speed of the vehicle.

Ho Jin Kim said most members of the group gambled at the Imperial Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, which he said offers benefits to tour groups who are brought to the establishment. For example, Kim, who has often traveled with Doremi Tours, received meal coupons. Gamblers were given $110 worth of gambling chips for $100.

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writer Ronald B. Taylor and staff photographer Hyungwon Kang in Las Vegas.