Thirteen people died and 31 were injured – most of them as they slept – when a tour bus slammed into the back of a semi-truck on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs before dawn Sunday, Oct. 23, the California Highway Patrol said.

UPDATE: 11 of the 13 deceased are identified

The Alhambra-based USA Holiday charter bus carrying 44 passengers was returning to the Los Angeles area after a visit to the Red Earth Casino in Thermal, said CHP Chief Jim Abele, commander of the Indio office. He didn’t say exactly where the bus was bound.

Five victims remained in intensive care Sunday evening, while some of those with less serious injuries had been treated and sent home.

CHP officials said they know little so far about the deceased, but all were adults, and most were Hispanic. The Riverside County Coroner’s Office is working to identify them and notify their families.

Abele said at an afternoon news conference that the CHP has not yet determined whether alcohol, drugs or fatigue played a role in the collision, which occurred at 5:17 a.m. on the 10 between the Indian Avenue and Highway 62 exits, near a large field of windmills.

The investigation into the cause, which will be joined Monday by a 12-member team from the National Transportation Safety Board, will go forward without perhaps the most crucial witness: the bus driver, who perished in the collision.

THE CRASH

The semi was going only about 5 mph in the second-from-right westbound lane; traffic had slowed because of a traffic break a mile or two ahead to allow Southern California Edison workers to pull wires across the highway.

The bus was traveling much faster, although it is not clear whether it was speeding, Abele said.

When the bus hit the semi, the impact was so strong that the bus went about 15 feet into the trailer, peeling back the front of the bus and mangling the back of the semi’s collapsible trailer. The vehicles had to be pulled apart by crane.

Most of the dead were believed to have been sitting near the front of the bus and were found in their seats.

Abele said it appeared the 1996 bus didn’t have seat belts.

Skid marks did not appear to start until the point of impact, indicating the bus may not have braked before it hit the semi. However, a trauma surgeon said the injuries indicated the bus was slowing down at the point of impact.

David Hirschfield, a local taxi driver, said he picked up the semi driver from Eisenhower Medical Center about 4 p.m. and took him to a location he would not disclose.

The driver said he suffered a deep cut to his right leg and had blood all over his shirt, yet got out of his truck and helped some of the survivors on the bus escape through the windows.

Hirschfield said the driver seemed to be suffering emotional trauma from the crash.

The driver told Hirschfield he felt the impact, but heard and saw nothing. The driver said he blacked out at first. After he came to, he said he went to help tend to the bus passengers.

During their conversation, which Hirschfield video recorded and posted on his Facebook page, the driver – identified as “Bruce” – told Hirschfield it was his duty to help the surviving passengers.

“I’m blessed to be here,” Bruce said. “If God gives you the opportunity to help people, that’s what you do.”

Bruce helped surviving passengers exit out of the windows of the bus, he said. The passengers were mostly Hispanic and appeared to be in their 50s, he said.

Bruce said traffic was heavy when the crash occurred. He said he was “just beginning to move” when he was rear-ended.

In the hours after the crash, rescuers used ladders and a crane to search the wreckage for victims.

Before the westbound freeway reopened at 4 p.m., all vehicles were diverted off at Indian Avenue, causing a massive backup on the 10. At one point, the CHP sent officers to the exit before Indian, where drivers were trying to get off the freeway by driving the wrong way down the on-ramp.

SPINAL FRACTURES, FACIAL TRAUMA

Injured victims were taken to three hospitals. Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, which has a trauma center, received the worst-injured patients: five in critical condition and three in serious condition. It also took in six with minor injuries.

Twelve victims with minor injuries went to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, and the other five, all with minor injuries, went to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio.

Authorities advised the families of people who may have been involved in the bus crash to contact the hospitals to see if their relatives had been treated there:

• Desert Regional Medical Center: 760-323-6511, 1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs

• John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital: 760-347-6191, 47111 Monroe St., Indio

• Eisenhower Medical Center: 760-340-3911, 39000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage

The Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau has established a “family assistance center” for people unable to locate their loved ones. It is at 800 S. Redlands Ave. in Perris, and can be reached by phone at 951-443-2300.

Dr. Ricard Townsend, a trauma surgeon at Desert Regional Medical Center, said doctors treated several spinal fractures but few other broken bones.

Many of the victims suffered facial trauma – a telltale sign that they were not wearing seat belts and went flying after the impact.

Five of the 14 victims taken to Desert Regional were in intensive care but stable, and about seven had been released, he said.

Most of the injuries Eisenhower Medical Center treated were soft-tissue in nature and included abrasions and contusions, said Dr. David Romness, assistant medical director.

Romness, who helped treat five or six of the patients, said many appeared frightened or confused.

“Some had been sleeping in the back” at the time of the crash, he said. Most were Spanish-speaking, he said, so wasn’t able to learn much about what exactly they were feeling.

Two patients remained at Eisenhower Medical Center in good condition as of 5 p.m. Sunday, said spokeswoman Lee Rice. One had been transferred to Desert Regional Medical Center in good condition. The nine others treated at Eisenhower had been discharged, she said.

BUS OWNER’S RECORD

State and federal records say USA Holiday is licensed to Teodulo Elias Vides, and operated out of an Alhambra apartment. The CHP could not confirm Sunday whether he was driving or on board when the bus crashed.

The company says on social media that is has more than 25 years of experience in traveling to casinos in Southern California. It posts about trips leaving the Los Angeles area to casinos around the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas.

The company is licensed for one bus and one driver, according to online records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It gave the company a “satisfactory” safety rating in 2007.

In 2008, as part of a crackdown at LAX on “illegally operating passenger carriers,” the California Public Utilities Commission cited Vides and USA Holiday. Its specific violations were not available.

A man by the name of Teodulo Elias Vides received two traffic tickets in Riverside County, according to Superior Court records. It could not be confirmed Sunday whether this is the same Vidas who owns USA Holiday.

One was a 2005 citation for speeding over 70 mph on a highway. He attended traffic school and paid a $151.80 fine. The second, in 2011, was for driving with a suspended license, but that case was dismissed, court records show.

Vides and USA Holiday were named in lawsuits filed in 2004, 2008 and 2009 in Riverside County, court records show. Online records do not show what the basis of the complaints were.

No other court records for Vides could be found in Los Angeles, Orange or San Bernardino counties.

The bus that crashed was inspected in 2014, 2015 and this April, and no mechanical issues were found, said Abele of the CHP.

‘SUCH A NICE FAMILY’

Sonia Anderson is a neighbor of the Alhambra apartment where USA Holiday is based.

She said the family there – a man, woman and their college student son – had lived in the apartment for about 17 years. She frequently baby-sat the son when he was a child. The father also has another, older daughter from a previous relationship who lives elsewhere.

She described them as a kind and close-knit. “They’re such a nice family,” Anderson said.

She said the father owned the small company and generally drove the tour bus, while his wife and son would sometimes accompany the father on the trips.

“We’re going to pray for the family,” she said.

She hadn’t seen any of them since Thursday and was worried that all three may have been on board.

“All three of them are hard working people,” she said. The father was “always working, coming in and out, providing for his family.”

A tour bus with “USA Holiday” emblazoned on the side could often be seen parked on the street in front of the apartment, according to Anderson.

The family had invited Anderson and her husband, Robert, to come along on casino trips in the past, but she said they had not taken them up on the offer, she said

Robert Anderson said their thoughts were also with the dozens of other families affected by Sunday’s collision.

The Associated Press, City News Service and staff writers David Danelski and Ali Tadayon contributed to this report.