Posted: Mon 6:19 PM, Dec 31, 2012
Reporter: Associated Press Email
Updated: Mon 7:47 PM, Dec 31, 2012

Probe of Tour Bus Crash May Take a Month

UPDATE: PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) - Authorities say it may be a month or more before investigators and prosecutors decide whether to file charges in the crash of a tour bus in Eastern Oregon that killed nine people.

At a news conference Monday, State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said investigators don't know how fast the bus was going, but there were icy spots on Interstate 84 through the Blue Mountains.

Hastings says 48 people, most of them Koreans, were on the bus that hit a concrete barrier, veered across both westbound lanes, went through a guardrail and plunged 200 feet down a bank. Hastings says authorities are working with the South Korean consulate to identify victims.

Some survivors have been released from regional hospitals, and a few are in serious or critical condition. Their ages range from 7 to 74.

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) - A hospital official says it appears 46 people were aboard a tour bus that crashed through a guardrail and down a slope on an icy stretch of interstate in northeastern Oregon, killing nine passengers.

Larry Blanc, a spokesman for St. Anthony Hospital in nearby Pendleton, said Monday that 14 of those aboard remain at St. Anthony, one in serious condition. Seven were discharged Sunday and are in the care of the Red Cross.

Blanc says 16 people were sent to other hospitals in the region, including the Oregon Health & Science University hospital in Portland.

The bus crashed Sunday morning along a stretch of Interstate 84 known for snowy, icy conditions in the winter.

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