No quick answers expected in crash

Ben Grove and Karen Zekan

Thursday, April 1, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol anticipates that it could be as long as two to three months before it knows why a chartered bus carrying 32 Clark County school children crashed into a tractor-trailer and careened off a 45-foot embankment.

Both the mangled Coach USA bus and the rig that had been transporting strawberries were hauled up the cliff off northbound Interstate 15 near Mountain Pass, Calif., 55 miles southwest of Las Vegas, on Wednesday.

"A complete mechanical inspection will be performed on both vehicles, and we will be interviewing all witnesses and the drivers," Officer Willie Hailey, CHP spokesman, said today of the department's Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team's plans.

"By the time it's completed, the report will likely be more than 150 pages long."

Charlie Burger, driver of the Coach USA bus, remained in critical condition this morning at University Medical Center. A school teacher admitted to the hospital after Tuesday's 10:15 p.m. accident has since been released, as has the wife of Gary Ray Sanders, who was driving the truck.

Authorities do not believe the windy weather -- gusts that night reached 40 mph -- was a factor in the crash.

The David Cox Elementary students were returning home from an overnight trip to Sea World in San Diego when the accident happened on I-15's northbound slow lane.

Approximately 60 kids were estimated to have been on the trip, half of whom were on board the bus that crashed.

Coach USA, parent company for KT Services, Greyline Tours and Express Shuttle USA, has yet to comment on why a second bus carrying half the children did not stop or whether the two bus drivers had been in communication with one another.

School board member Mary Beth Scow echoed the rescue workers who called the accident's outcome "a miracle."

"It's good it didn't turn out worse," said Scow, who represents the Henderson area.

She said she hopes spring break trips for elementary school pupils continue.

"I don't know if there is something we need to do to make sure (bus accidents) don't happen," Scow said. "I would hate to see something like these trips come to a stop."

Several Cox parents said the annual trip for fifth graders is a kind of rite of passage for the students, who next year head off to middle school. Students in recent years have made the pilgrimage to Sea World and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Students had to earn the trip with good grades and good behavior. Students study oceanography before the trip and write reports about the marine life after they return.

Students raised money for the trip through pizza and cookie dough fund raisers. The group stayed at a hotel at Sea World Monday night. At the museum, they dissected a squid. At Sea World, they observed dolphins, sharks, touched sea rays and watched performances by Shamu, the world-famous whale.

"It's really a good educational trip and the kids have a lot of fun, too," said Melodee Wilcox, whose 10-year-old daughter Katie was on the bus that didn't crash.

Katie's bus, the second bus, apparently did not stop at the scene of the accident, although it's not clear why.

"Katie didn't know, she didn't say anything about it when we picked her up," Wilcox said. "We had her in bed asleep before we even found out about it."

Wilcox heard about the accident later that evening from television news.

Wilcox said she also hopes trips for students continue, despite the fact that the accident shook up the children and badly frightened parents.

"These kinds of things just kind of happen," Wilcox said. "I've had three children go on these trips, and this is the first time ever that anything went wrong. You can't control everything and be afraid to live life because something like this happens."

Wilcox said Katie had been on the phone part of the day Wednesday talking to friends who went on the trip.

"Her reaction was shock," Wilcox said. "A lot of the kids were really concerned for the bus driver. They said he was a really nice guy."

Jeannie Waters said her 10-year-old son Trevor was sleeping at the time of the crash. She said a teacher and another student had said he came up on the semi and struck the truck without braking.

"He woke up to the chaos, either after the screaming or the hit (of the collision)," Waters said. "I'm not sure he knows."

Waters said rescuers took her son out of the bus through a window.

Waters and her husband Neal waited at the school and watched the other bus arrive. Parents milled around waiting for the second bus. Finally, several parents listening to the radio in their cars heard about a bus crash and word quickly spread among the waiting parents.

"No one officially ever told us what was going on, it was just through the news and the media that we got our information," Waters said. "No one panicked. Everyone was certainly distraught. No one went hysterical. They were calm, but kind of pacing."

Soon parents began hearing that most of the children had been transported to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson. The Waters went there and waited two hours before they found out their son was at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas. They found Trevor and other students there on beds, alert but "extremely sober and tired."

"They were glad to see their moms," Waters said.

Trevor had a minor concussion and a cut over his right eye. They took him home at about 5: 30 a.m.

Waters echoed a familiar concern about buses not having safety belts. She added that she was concerned about students traveling so far away for a field trip. She said she didn't want her son taking field trips any time soon.

"It will take a while," she said. "It's made me very nervous."