Brakes Probed for Cause of Fatal Bus Crash

Working beneath a blazing desert sun, a team of investigators Thursday picked through the mangled wreckage of a school bus that had been transporting Girl Scouts on an outing when it plunged headlong down a rocky embankment outside Palm Springs. Three adults and four teen-age girls were killed in the Wednesday accident and scores more, including a Fallbrook woman, were injured.

Three adults and eight girls, who had traveled from all over the country for an excursion in California, remained in critical or serious condition Thursday evening. Five were on life-support systems.

Investigators, including several from the National Transportation Safety Board, continued to focus on brake failure as the likely cause of the accident. Several of the 60 girls and Scout supervisors on the ill-fated bus heard the driver, who was killed, shout that he had lost his brakes shortly before the bus careened off a narrow road in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains.

“They were riding down the hill and someone yelled, ‘The bus is going too fast, it’s going to hit the other bus!’ ” Sue Brooks of Orland Park, Ill., said after talking to her 15-year-old daughter Debbie, a passenger who is in critical condition with a cracked skull.

“Then she (Debbie) felt a hard jerk, hit her head, and everything went dark,” Brooks said from a Palm Springs hospital. “She said there was a girl under the bus, right next to her--bodies everywhere.”

At the moment the bus crashed to the ground, Aesha Stewart, a 15-year-old from Evansville, Ind., ducked her head into the lap of a girl sitting next to her, according to Aesha’s mother, Yvonne. The Stewarts would later learn that Aesha’s companion, Vicki Powell, had died.

“(Aesha) said that once the bus went over, it flipped on its nose, like it was doing cartwheels,” Yvonne Stewart told a reporter for the Evansville, Ind., Courier.

The bus was part of a three-vehicle convoy on an excursion organized by the Spanish Trails Girl Scout Council of Pomona. Girls had been selected from Scout troops throughout the United States to participate in a two-week “California Dreamin’ ” tour of Southern California. Four girls had come from Finland.

A Fallbrook woman who was among the injured was being treated Thursday for cuts and bruises in the intensive care unit of Desert Hospital in Palm Springs.

Kendra Jones, 19, was a volunteer chaperon on the trip.

Ardell Loomer, a nurse’s advocate at the hospital, said Jones was expected to be released within five days.

A Girl Scout spokesman in San Diego said Thursday that Jones, a student at UC San Diego, had been a Scout since the age of 8 and for the last year had been active as an adult member of the organization.

Jones also has been awarded the Girl Scouts’ highest achievement certificate, the Gold Award, which rewards completion of numerous leadership and career exploration endeavors.

“She’s an active, committed member of our organization,” Girl Scout spokesman Kate Mayne said of Jones. “She intends to pursue a college career.”

Anxious parents, many of whom learned the news when they turned on their televisions, caught flights to the Los Angeles area to pick up their daughters, to maintain bedside vigils in hospitals or, in four cases, to claim bodies.

The Scouts who survived the accident unhurt or with minor injuries spent Wednesday night in Palm Springs’ Radisson Inn. They were bused back to Pomona on Thursday for reunions with relatives and counseling with trauma specialists. The more seriously injured remained in Palm Springs-area hospitals, where bedside counseling was under way.

Huddled in the safety of the hotel lounges, many of the girls stayed up late Wednesday, talking, hugging each other, reliving the experience and occasionally crying, said Jovanna Wooden, executive director of the Spanish Trails Council.

“We can’t even begin to tell you how it feels for them and their families,” Wooden said. One slightly injured girl told her “it felt like something I would watch at Universal Studios. I can’t make it real yet.”

Universal Studios had been one stop on the Scouts’ tour, along with Disneyland and the beach. Many were planning to go to the Hard Rock Cafe or to see Rodeo Drive before the excursion was abruptly cut short by the tragedy.

Even in the final moments leading up to the crash, the girls were apparently enjoying themselves. Some told parents later they had been flirting and joking with the young bus driver.

“(The driver) was a young guy and had been having fun, joking around with the girls,” Yvonne Stewart said. “Some of them had been flirting with him, just having a good time. So when he said the brakes went out, they didn’t believe him at first.”

Within hours of the wreck, counselors immediately began working with the survivors, soothing their emotions and listening to their anguish.

“They keep seeing these images of the crash,” said Dr. Anita Chatigny, a clinical psychologist at Desert Hospital. “They are having trouble sleeping. They are crying.”

On Thursday, about 50 girls were taken to the Encinitas Residence Hall at Cal Poly Pomona. Some were in tears. Others, their legs in casts, used crutches as they filed into the dorm. Several still wore pale green hospital uniforms, while others were in their Scout ensembles of blue shorts and polo shirts.

Randy and Susan Hill of Edmond, Okla., were there to greet her daughter, Amber Hicks. The 17-year-old Scout was supposed to have been on the wrecked bus, Randy Hill said, but had decided to help a handicapped girl on another vehicle.

“It was a good feeling . . . good she’s alive and well and everything worked out,” he said. “We’re very thankful, yet it was such a human tragedy, so we have a mixture of feelings.”

The Hills, en route to Los Angeles for a vacation with Amber, were changing planes in Denver when a pilot paged them and told them to report to an airline counter for a message. The news: There had been a wreck, but Amber was OK.

Inside the Cal Poly dorm, Scout officials read out the full list of casualties. Some girls wept after names were announced. Then they began leaving and by Thursday evening, most were on their way home.

The Scouts were ordered not to discuss the accident by Girl Scout officials, who said they feared that the teen-agers might give out incorrect or incomplete information. In fact, the officials took extraordinary measures to prevent reporters from talking to the survivors.

At one point Thursday morning, Girl Scout leaders called a press conference in the lobby of the Radisson Inn--just as the girls were being led out a back way. Later, the press was summoned to Pomona City Hall at the same time the girls were scheduled to arrive at Cal Poly, on the other side of town.

Wooden defended the actions. “That’s the way we handle things like this,” she said. “We’re protecting children who are minors by saying we will speak (for them) until we reach their parents.”

Later Thursday, even parents said they had been told by Scout officials not to talk to the press.

As investigators picked over the wreckage at the foot of a boulder-strewn embankment outside Palm Springs, brake failure remained a probable cause of the accident.

“The fact that we don’t see any locked-wheel skid marks indicates it was probably a brake problem,” said Jon West, an assistant leader of the California Highway Patrol’s accident investigation team.

Other possibilities have not been ruled out, however. These include tire failure, a steering problem, driver error or some structural defect or weakness in the bus.

West said one possible scenario is that the driver braked excessively while descending the three miles of steep grade above the accident site.

“You can easily overheat the brakes to the point where the drum expands and the shoe won’t reach it anymore,” West said. “At that point, the brakes don’t do you any good.”

The proper way to descend this hill, he said, “would be to put the vehicle in a low gear,” one that “might not require you to touch the brakes at all.”

Safety board member John Lauber cautioned that it was “way too early” to make any conclusions about the cause of the accident.

“We’re going to look at the brakes but also at every other possible mechanical factor and human factor that could have played a role here,” Lauber said.

In addition to the safety board team, eight CHP inspectors, plus officials from the Palm Springs Police Department and the bus company, scoured the rough terrain where the bus crashed.

Clad in blue coveralls, they painstakingly tried to reconstruct the accident. They snapped more than 1,000 photographs, measured skid marks and examined the twisted bus wreckage and its front axle, which broke free of the vehicle when it left the roadway. The temperature climbed to 114 degrees as they worked.

The bus was dragged back up to the roadway late Thursday and was to be transported to a storage facility, where investigators will take it apart.

In Palm Springs, a volunteer who assisted with the rescue said several Scouts told her that the chartered buses had experienced repeated mechanical problems throughout the tour.

“They said they were always breaking down,” said Lindsay McMillan, a volunteer with Catholic Charities. “They also were really packed in there, three to a seat.”

The CHP’s West said seating three passengers to a row is illegal.

Wooden said her organization always checks to make sure the vehicles it uses meet state safety guidelines. The 2-year-old, 72-seat bus that crashed, she said, had been used previously during the two-week trip; it was from one of four different bus companies used during the trip.

The company that operated the bus is Mayflower Contract Services. CHP records show that buses run by Mayflower were cited 559 times in California over the last year, including 220 times for brake problems. Officials did not say, however, if the number of citations is unusual.

The driver was identified as Richard A. Gonzales, 23, of La Puente. Authorities said he had been employed by the bus company for about a year. His driving record showed no accidents.

Sixteen victims remained hospitalized Thursday. Among them, five patients at Desert Hospital were on life-support systems, breathing with the aid of ventilators, according to Dr. Frank Ercoli, director of trauma services.

Four patients at the hospital suffered back fractures, seven had chest and lung injuries and five had head injuries, he said.

Ercoli said the timing of the accident was fortunate. The hospital was in the midst of a shift change, so twice the usual complement of nurses and physicians was on duty, and the operating rooms were available. In addition, one of the vehicles in the Scout convoy was equipped with a cellular telephone, which was used to summon immediate help.

In a statement echoed by other rescue workers, Ercoli called the accident a devastating tragedy.

“I’m a tough guy, I’m a trauma surgeon,” Ercoli said. “I see a lot. But it takes its toll. It takes a lot to get over this. Anybody who tells you otherwise is a fool.”

Mike Allison of Springs Ambulance was the first paramedic to arrive at the crash site. He said he saw “bodies lying all over the place in grotesque positions.”

“It’s something I never want to see again in my life,” said Allison, who added that he is still trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono visited patients at Desert Hospital on Thursday and praised residents of the area, noting that more than 100 had turned out to donate blood while others had offered money for funeral services and the use of their homes to families of the injured.

Times staff writers Mike Ward in Pomona and Tracy Wilkinson in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

The Passengers

Here is a list of those involved in the fatal bus crash near Palm Springs, and the condition of those injured. Home towns are listed where available. Fatalities:

Richard Gonzales, 23, the bus driver, La Puente

Doneta Schaeffer, staff adviser, no age, Davenport, Iowa

Laurel McDaniel, 30, supervisor, Norcross, Ga.

Vickie Powell, Fairburn, Ga.

Zoe Jackson, 15, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine

Tammie Murray, 15, Detroit

Jennifer Barnum, 16, Rochester Hills, Mich. Others on the Bus

Barbara Andruk, Taunton, Mass.

Brandi Loncar, Del Rio, Tex.

Jenni Auld, Oviedo, Fla.

Kate Lucas, Chicago

Alexis Andreozzi, Haverton, Pa., serious

Alana Madison, Dolgeville, N.Y.

Debbie Anthony, Covina

Lara Max-Muller, Katonah, N.Y.

Mary Bergh, Duluth, Minn., fair

Carrie Messe, Lawton, Okla.

Kelly Moyer, Omaha, Neb.

Lawanda Boulware, Winnsboro, S.C.

Audra Braun, Jasper, Ind., fair

Jackie Nelson, Silver Spring, Md.

Debbie Brooks, Orland Park, Ill., critical

Emma Phelps, Iola, Wis., critical

Shelly Bussey

Nina Buchert

Chris Ramthun, Paynesville, Minn.

Kristy Crawley, Mustang, Okla.

Tracy Rizzo, Levittown, N.Y.

Lea Davies, Evansville, Ind.

Sapreet Saluja, Robbinsville, N.J., fair

Kelly Downey, Toms River, N.J., fair

Vachelle Sanders, Oilton, Okla.

Melissa Douglas

Shannon Schaffer, Derby, Kans.

Heather Dubey, Lake City, Mich.

Kellie Schegel, Snyder, Tex.

Jonna Eklund

Tracie Schiebel, San Antonio, Tex.

Kali Henson, Chesterfield, Va., serious

Leanne Schubert, Evans City, Pa.

Kristy Hansen, Wentzville, Mo.

Jennifer Snowden, Wheatfield, Ind., critical

Julie Heath, Stephens City, Va.

Aesha Stewart, Evansville, Ind.

Amber Hicks, Syracuse, N.Y.

Anita Johns, Washington, Mo.

Karen Webster, Galloway, Ohio

Jamie Harris, Ontario

Ginger Hogg, State College, Pa.

Kim Jones, Ocean, N.J.

Laura Lynn, Brunswick, Ohio, serious

Andi Kane, Lynn, Mass.

Stephanie Kesterson, Cincinnati, critical

Jenny Liberto, New Orleans, critical Staff Advisers:

Donna Decker, Evansville, Ind., critical

Stephanie Gladowski, New Berlin, Wis., serious

Kendra Jones, Fallbrook, critical

Diana November, Hacienda Heights, fair

Jennifer Steiner, Glendora, fair

Jannike Store

SOURCE: City of Palm Springs, Associated Press

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