TOUR BUS CRASHED IN MONTEREY COUNTY, CA

Death toll has risen to five.
It appeared as though several people were ejected from the bus during the crash and landed on railroad tracks below the highway, witnesses said.

Fifteen ambulances and several helicopters responded to the crash scene and the highway was shut down in both directions for a few hours.

Five hospitals were treating the surviving victims. Adrienne Laurent, a spokeswoman for the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, said her facility had received several of the most critically injured from the crash.

Emergency room workers at Watsonville Community Hospital and Natividad Medical Center in Salinas said they were also among the hospitals that received crash patients.

CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader said it was believed there were 36 passengers and a driver on board when the vehicle overturned, but authorites had not yet received a passenger manifest as of Tuesday evening to confirm that.

She indicated that the bus driver was among those who survived the crash.

Officials with Orion Pacific, a family-owned, luxury charter coach company based in Orange, said the people onboard the bus were all French tourists on an eight-day tour that began in Los Angeles.

Jacques de Noray, a spokesman for the French consulate in San Francisco, said authorities notified his office that there were French citizens involved in the crash, but he knew few other details.

The CHP's Clader said the group had left San Francisco earlier in the day and was headed to Santa Maria, after making stops in Monterey and Carmel, when the accident happened.

Clader could not comment on Orion Pacific's safety record pending the accident investigation. The company has been operating since 1985.

In October, 10 people were killed and many others injured when a casino-bound charter bus carrying 42 passengers crashed in Colusa County. CHP officials said the driver, 52-year-old Quintin Watts, fell asleep at the wheel, and the district attorney has not yet decided whether to charge him in the case.

Authorities also suspect driver fatigue in an April 4 bus crash near Lake Tahoe. The bus, operated by the Resort at Squaw Creek and carrying employees, veered off the freeway and rolled at least once, killing one passenger and injuring 24 others. That crash remained under investigation.