SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, USA (AP) — The driver of a tour bus that crashed near a national park in Utah, claiming the lives of four Chinese tourists and leaving dozens of injured, made his first trip for a company that had very little time in the negotiation or, the investigators indicated on Sunday. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates the driver’s history, driver’s certification and medical history, said Pete Kotowski, an investigator in charge for the agency, at a conference Press on Sunday night. He did not disclose the driver’s name, but revealed he is from California. The agency hasn’t questioned him yet.
The driver is a U.S. citizen and apparently did not drive under substance influx, previously pointed out the NTSB Utah.La Road Police also investigates the bus company’s inspection history, its hiring processes and its culture corporate security, Kotowski added. The company, called America Shengjia Inc., is based in Ontario, California, and cooperates with the researchers, maintained. The researcher said the company had “a very short period of time” in the business, although it did not reveal how much.
Phone messages left to the company on Saturday and Sunday by The Associated Press were not answered.
The cause of Friday’s crash near Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah has not yet been determined, according to Kotowski. Investigators analyze the site of the accident and the remains of the 2017 medium bus.Four people died and five others were in critical condition by Saturday night. Hospital officials did not offer an update on the status of the injured. The bus coming from Southern California rolled on a railing, its roof was crushed and the vertical bars pierced the vehicle, Utah Road Police sergeant Nick Street said Saturday. Three women and a man lost their lives. The victims were identified as Ling Geng, 68, Xiuyun Chen, 67, Zhang Caiyu, 62, and Zhongliang Qiu, 65, according to the Utah Road Police.All 31 occupants of the bus had injuries. Between 12 and 15 were in critical condition just after the accident, but some have improved since then, Street said.
