The driver of a charter bus that crashed in California's Merced County early Tuesday, killing multiple people, worked long hours and may have been losing sleep after the recent death of his wife, family members said, though his daughter disputed it.
Mario David Vasquez, 57, of Los Angeles, had only three to four hours of sleep the night before the crash and was due to finish his driving shift and be relieved in Livingston, a mile north of the crash on Highway 99, family members told Los Angeles's KNBC-TV.
Relatives said Vasquez, who survived the crash with severe injuries, is a hardworking man who rarely took a day off. Sometimes, they said, he worked seven days a week, KFSN-TV of Fresno reported.
Still, he would not have driven if he were drowsy, and there were always two drivers who took turns at the wheel, family members said.
"He was very responsible," Vasquez's granddaughter, Denise Menjivar, told NBC. "When he got tired, he told the other driver, 'You can take over from here.'"
Vasquez recently lost his wife of 25 years to cancer, KNBC reported.
In a Facebook message written in Spanish, Vasquez's daughter, Mariana Peralta, told the Los Angeles Times that reports that Vasquez might have been driving seven days a week and that he was losing sleep after his wife's death were "a lie." She did not comment further.
Multiple passengers died and numerous people were seriously injured when the northbound bus struck the support pole for a road sign at about 3:30 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said. The pole split the white bus down the middle, tearing through the vehicle as it kept moving forward, authorities said.
Though authorities reported Tuesday that five people had been killed, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, who also serves as the county coroner, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the crash had killed four people, not five. The total, he said, was updated after coroner's officials canvassed area hospitals.
The bus originated in Mexico and had stopped in Los Angeles before continuing north toward Pasco, Wash., said CHP Officer Moises Onsurez. The 1998 vehicle is registered to Autobuses Coordinados USA Inc., according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Surviving passengers have described chaos after the predawn crash. Rescuers worked for hours to remove people trapped in the wreckage.
Passenger Nakia Coleman was traveling to Pasco after a stay in Mexico to "clear her head after losing a son to suicide," the Tri-City Herald reported. She was hospitalized after the crash, which killed her Jack Russell terrier.
Coleman, 40, was pinned in her seat, about two feet from the sign pole that tore through the bus. A dead man had been pushed on top of her, she said.
"It's like one of those 'Final Destination' movie things you never thought would happen in reality, especially to you," Coleman told the Herald.
She climbed to the back seat and crawled out an exit window, but other passengers remained trapped, she said.
Coleman told the newspaper that the bus was trying to pass another vehicle but "that vehicle wasn't allowing him to pass and it kind of ran him off the road."
Another passenger, Leonardo Sanchez, who was headed to Oregon to pick blueberries, was sleeping when he was thrown face-first into the seat in front of him, he told AP. He climbed out, afraid the bus would catch fire.
"We couldn't pull people out because there was shattered glass everywhere, seats destroyed," he said.
Warnke told reporters that rescuers pulled "bags of body parts" from the bus along with the survivors. Some people suffered severed limbs, and others were thrown from the bus.
Autobuses Coordinados USA has an office in East Los Angeles. Phone calls by the Times were not answered, and staff members were not available at the office Tuesday afternoon.
The bus involved in the crash has been cited for at least seven violations over the last two years, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records that identify the vehicle by its license plate number.
It has been cited for having a damaged or discolored windshield, a defective or no brake-warning device, prohibited aisle seats and other issues, records show.
Autobuses Coordinados was cited during a February 2015 inspection because a driver had a suspended commercial driver's license, records show.
