Bus driver did not have heart attack

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

The 80-year-old man who was driving a chartered bus loaded with schoolchildren that crashed more than a week ago died of complications from multiple blunt traumas, the Clark County Coroner's Office said today.

There were no signs of a heart attack, a spokesperson said.

Charlie Burger was critically injured in the March 30 accident when his bus rammed the rear end of semi-tractor-trailer traveling north on Interstate 15 in California near the state line, 55 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Burger died April 1 at University Medical Center.

The California Highway Patrol has said it could be as long as two to three months before they know why the bus, carrying 35 Clark County schoolchildren home from a spring break field trip, crashed into the tractor- trailer and careened off a 35-foot embankment.

Authorities do not believe the weather -- that night reaching gusts as strong as 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 in I-15's northbound slow lane.

More than 70 children were estimated to have been on the trip, half of whom were on board the bus that crashed.