CHP Blames ‘Driver Error’ in Fatal Van Crash

California Highway Patrol authorities said Friday that a tour van involved in a crash that killed six Korean-Americans and injured six others appeared to be mechanically sound and that the accident may have been the result of “driver error.”

“We have an accident here caused by no identifiable factor other than the driver,” said Capt. Robert Hayworth, of the CHP’s Barstow office. “Whether he fell asleep, was inattentive or had some physical problem, we do not know at this time.”

Van Speeding, CHP Says

Hayworth said a preliminary investigation of the crash, which occurred at 11 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate 15 just west of the Nevada state line, indicated that the van was traveling at “a minimum speed” of 65 m.p.h. to 70 m.p.h.

The driver, Sung Il Kim, 31, who was listed in stable but guarded condition at Humana Hospital Sunrise in Las Vegas, was not licensed to drive a commercial bus, Hayworth said. He added that Kim had been cited twice for speeding in a similar tour van within the last five months.

National Transportation Safety Board officials on Friday were still unable to locate the business files of Doremi Tours, the Los Angeles firm that owns the van, according to Sandra Browne, an NTSB investigator in Los Angeles.

A Doremi employee said the owner-operator of the company, Ji Soo Kim, took the files out of the office on Wednesday after the accident.

May Subpoena Records

“We will subpoena them if they are not returned in a friendly manner,” Browne said.

Doremi also was warned Friday by state Public Utilities Commission officials that it must cease all operations within California or face prosecution for operating without government permits.

Norm Kelley, PUC director of transportation in San Francisco, informed the company by letter that there are no records of it having authorization to operate in California or to conduct interstate commerce. Penalties for operating without proper authorization include a $1,000-a-day fine or three months in jail, Kelley said.

Ji Soo Kim has been unavailable for comment since Wednesday, and the Doremi employee claimed on Friday that his boss was out visiting the families of the victims.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles man who witnessed the crash told CHP investigators that he had been driving two or three car lengths behind the van for 20 to 25 miles at a speed “close to 75 miles per hour.”

Only Vehicles on Road

The witness, who talked to a Times reporter on condition that his name not be published, said that his car and the van were the only two vehicles on the Los Angeles-bound road “for quite a distance.”

The witness said both vehicles were traveling in the slow lane when the van driver swerved toward the middle of the road, and then swerved back. But instead of regaining control of the van, he swerved back to the middle, “as though it were all in one motion,” the man said.

For a second time, the van driver swerved back to the outside of the highway, and this time the force of the movement threw the van “head over heels,” the witness said.

CHP officers said that many of the 11 passengers were ejected from the van before it came to rest in a brushy center divider. The victims were taken by helicopter and ambulance to four Las Vegas hospitals, authorities said.

No Insurance Records

PUC authorities said state law requires that such a van carry at least $1.6 million in public liability insurance, but there are no records with state or federal authorities indicating that the van had such coverage.

According to Doremi office manager Joseph Ko, however, the van had $500,000 in liability insurance.

Although Ko said Ji Soo Kim had been out trying to help victims’ families make funeral arrangements, not one of five families interviewed by The Times on Friday had even been notified by Doremi that there had been an accident.

Four of these families had someone killed in the accident. The fifth assumed that the mother of the family was dead, only to learn Thursday that she was in critical condition at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Several members of the families said they learned of the accident only by reading newspapers or hearing accounts on television. Some of them then flew to Las Vegas and searched for their relatives in hospitals.

There seemed to be some confusion Friday over who would pay funeral costs of the victims. Ko was telling survivors that the company’s insurance would cover the expenses. But Paul Kim, director of the Korean Funeral Home, where five of the bodies are being taken, was unwilling to wait for the insurance payments. He demanded at least partial payment up front. Some of the families, as a result, are paying the funeral costs.

Son Assails Company

In his Los Angeles apartment, kneeling before a temporary shrine in honor of his mother, Jae Young Lee said his family had not been offered any assistance by Doremi. He said angrily that the company had failed to notify or assist the families in any way. “These are very bad guys who deserve to be severely punished,” Lee said.

The pungent odor of incense filled the tiny apartment as Lee talked about the death of this mother, Kwang Ok Suh, 67.

A large purple tapestry with a gold cross had been hung on one wall, a backdrop for the shrine. Across the tapestry were the words, “I am the Resurrection. If anyone believes in me even though he dies he will live (John 11:25).” Two candles and a crucifix flanked a photograph of Mrs. Suh.

Lee is arranging for her body to be flown to South Korea to be buried next to his father.

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writer Bob Baker and staff photographer Hyungwon Kang.