Freeway Accident Ends Tour : Mishap: None of about 20 tourists on van headed for Planet Hollywood restaurant are seriously injured in three-vehicle wreck that jammed I-405.

About 20 tourists on the way to Planet Hollywood went instead to local hospitals after their tour van collided with two cars on the San Diego Freeway during Friday evening rush hour.

Kevin Genzel, 19, of Vancouver, Canada, who was on the van owned by Tour Connection & Charters of Orange, said he and several other passengers realized their driver was about to rear-end a car seconds before it happened.

“All of a sudden I heard people yelling for the driver to watch out for the car before us,” Genzel said. “I just put my arms up to cover my head and then wham, the bus jerked hard enough for us to hit the seat in front of us.”

The car in turn rear-ended another vehicle, California Highway Patrol Officer J. Perez said.

The chain-reaction crash occurred at 4 p.m. as the driver of the northbound van tried to exit at Bristol Street. No one was seriously injured.

Most of the people in all three vehicles were taken to nearby hospitals where Perez continued to interview them late Friday. No tickets had been issued.

Tour Connection did not return phone calls.

The tour van, which could seat up to 30 people, had picked up the tourists from several hotels in Anaheim for an outing to the Newport Beach Pier, lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Newport Beach and dinner at Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana.

He and fellow Vancouver resident Jason Friesen, 21, said they each paid about $30 for the tour.

“As soon as the bus stopped, all the kids were crying,” Friesen said. “Most everybody had cuts or bruises. We were very lucky.”

The accident backed up commuters for several miles on the northbound San Diego Freeway while seven ambulances loaded up the injured tourists, officers said.