Driver in Bus Crash Admits Using Cocaine

The driver of a charter bus that crashed near Palm Desert last week has admitted to using cocaine the day of the accident that injured 30 Orange County youths and chaperons headed to a church retreat, the president of the charter company and law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

The driver, James A. Miller III, 35, of Wilmington was fired Tuesday by Transit Contractors, based in Long Beach.

The bus that Miller was driving Friday afternoon veered off California 74, a winding mountain road, tipped on its side and slid about 50 feet down a hill. Twenty-six teen-age girls and four chaperons from Coast Hills Community Church in Laguna Niguel suffered minor to moderate injuries.

“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 & 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.

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

California Highway Patrol investigators in Indio said the cause of the accident remains undetermined, although they suspect driver error and are focusing on Miller’s drug use. No mechanical problems were found in the bus.

CHP officials said Ryder Truck Rental, which owns the chartered bus, notified them Tuesday of Miller’s admission. They said they tried to interview Miller, but he invoked his constitutional right to decline to speak to law enforcement officials about an alleged crime.

CHP Officer Craig Rentle said investigators were suspicious of Miller when he arrived at the hospital after the accident, looking “drowsy and dazed,” which Rentle said “was inconsistent with his apparent lack of injury.”

Investigators await the results of drug tests on urine and blood samples obtained Friday from Miller.

The investigation, which will take at least two more weeks, “continues to focus on the possibility of driving under the influence of drugs as a possible cause,” Rentle said.

Olsen said he could not comment on how much cocaine the bus driver told company officials he had used. He said Miller told them that it was in the morning, “at least eight hours” before the 4 p.m. crash.

Olsen flew to Orange County from Cincinnati on Tuesday and met with church elders until late in the night. Emerging from that meeting, he said he wanted to express his “deep regret, and I felt that ought to be done quite personally.”

Senior Pastor Denny Bellesy said after the meeting that ATE Management & Service Co. had promised to “take good care of the families and the kids, and that’s what we want.”

ATE officials had called Coast Hills Community Church about noon Tuesday to disclose the information on the driver’s alleged drug use.

Church member Kathy Esser, whose 13-year-old daughter, Amy, has a broken arm from the accident, said she was shocked by the news.

“It infuriates me that he would take it upon himself to take drugs and then take the responsibility of that kind of a job,” she said. “It boggles my brain.”

Miller passed a mandatory drug test in August before he was hired, Olsen said.

All the company’s job applicants, not just drivers, are screened for drugs, while existing employees are periodically tested when there is due cause, he said.

Olsen declined to comment on Miller’s record at the company before the accident or the grounds for his dismissal. He was fired “because he violated company policy,” Olsen said.

Miller was cited twice for traffic violations in the past few years, before he worked for the bus company, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

In February, 1990, Miller was cited by Los Angeles police for impeding the normal flow of traffic. In November, 1989, Long Beach police cited Miller for failing to stop at a stop sign. In both cases, he was later cited for failure to appear in court to address the tickets, according to DMV records.

On Friday, a group from Coast Hills Community Church was headed from Laguna Niguel to the Pathfinder Ranch, south of Idyllwild, for a weekend retreat. Miller’s bus was one of three transporting the group.

Miller told investigators at the scene that he was traveling about 30 m.p.h. when he realized that he had made a wrong turn off California 371 and looked at a map book. He said he was looking at the map when the bus slipped off the winding road.

Many of the youths on the trip had felt sorry for Miller on Friday because he apologized repeatedly to them after the accident and helped them out of the bus. The church pastor on Sunday led his congregation in prayer for Miller.

John Gash, one of the church elders--whose daughter, Autumn, suffered a sprained shoulder and elbow--said he finds Miller’s alleged admission “upsetting” but still feels sorrow for the driver.

“We still need to forgive him,” Gash said. “It is a sad situation, and he is a person who needs a lot of help.”

Gash also said he is not angry with the bus company. “In the past the company has been excellent, and since the accident it has responded in an excellent way.”

Jim Grindle, youth coordinator for the church, said he is uncertain whether the church will take legal action against the company or continue to use its services. He said that twice a year for the past three years, the church has chartered the company’s buses.

Olsen said he announced Miller’s alleged cocaine use 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 . . . can be.”

His 10-year-old company employs about 1,500 drivers in 26 states.

“We have an especially good program, but we’ll go back and re-look at what we are doing and redouble our efforts,” he said. “But no matter how good the drug testing program or education programs are, in the final analysis the only way to be absolutely certain that a driver is not getting behind the wheel of a bus under the influence of drugs and alcohol is to test every time. That, of course, is very impractical.”

Olsen said it is the first accident involving the company in which a driver allegedly used drugs.

While the bus tumbled down the embankment, glass shattered, seat cushions flew up and people were tossed out of their seats.

None of the injuries--mostly cuts, sprains and bruises--were considered serious. Two passengers were admitted to a hospital and released the next day.

“I have six children myself, and I have deep personal regret for all the pain and suffering of those injured in the accident, as well as the parents of the children and the chaperons,” Olsen said.

The accident was the second in the Palm Springs area involving youths in the past six months. In July, a charter bus from another company carrying a group of Girl Scouts crashed, killing four girls, two adults and the bus driver.

Times staff writers James M. Gomez, Leslie Berkman, Eric Young and Ajowa Ifateyo contributed to this story.