Driver in Bus Crash Tied to Cocaine Use : Transportation: Head of charter company says his employee admitted taking the drug the day of the accident, which left 30 passengers injured.

The driver of a chartered bus that crashed near Palm Desert last week has admitted to using cocaine the day of the accident, the president of the charter company said Tuesday.

Thirty passengers were injured in the accident last Friday.

The driver, James A. Miller III, 35, of Wilmington, was fired Tuesday by Transit Contractors, which is based here.

The bus, en route to a church retreat, veered off California 74, tipped over and slid about 50 feet down a hill from the winding mountain road Friday. Twenty-six teen-age girls and four chaperons from Coast Hills Community Church in Laguna Niguel suffered minor and moderate injuries. Two passengers were hospitalized and released the next day.

“The employee, during the course of our investigation, admitted to using cocaine the morning of the day of the accident,” said Louis B. Olsen, president and chief executive officer of ATE Management and Service Co., the parent company that owns Transit Contractors.

“We’re appalled this type of thing goes on despite all our best efforts. Absolutely appalled,” he said.

It was not immediately determined whether the cocaine use was a direct cause of the accident. Olsen said Miller’s disclosure was relayed to investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the California Highway Patrol.

CHP Officer Craig Rentle said investigators became suspicious when Miller arrived at the hospital looking drowsy and incoherent, “which was inconsistent with his apparent lack of injury.” The inquiry will take at least two more weeks, he said.

“The investigation will continue to focus on the possibility of driving under the influence as a possible cause,” Rentle said.

Olsen said he could not comment on how much cocaine Miller told company officials he had used. But Miller told the company he had used the drug “at least eight hours” before the 4 p.m. crash, according to Olson.

Miller, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, was unavailable for comment.

Olsen said he announced the driver’s admission because “our policy is one of full, immediate disclosure. The facts are the facts, and we are in the business of transporting people, so we are trying to be as open and forthcoming about this as we possibly can be.”

Miller passed a mandatory drug test in August before he was hired, Olsen said. All the company’s job applicants are screened for drugs, while current employees are periodically tested, he said.

Transit Contractors, which employs about 1,500 drivers in 26 states, says it will study ways to improve its drug screening and education program.

The bus was heading to the Pathfinder Ranch, south of Idyllwild, for a weekend retreat. Miller’s bus was one of three carrying the church group.

Miller told investigators he was traveling about 30 m.p.h. when he realized he had made a wrong turn off Riverside County Route 371 and looked at a map book. He said he was looking at the map when the bus slipped off the road between Pinyon Pines and Palm Desert.

Kathy Esser, whose 13-year-old daughter, Amy, broke an arm in the crash, said, “It infuriates me that he would take it upon himself to take drugs and then take the responsibility of that kind of a job. It boggles my mind.”’