Crime & Safety

Tour Bus Company in Fatal 15 Freeway Crash Based in Unincorporated Walnut

A tour bus involved in a roll over Thursday in Corona in which a 91-year-old man died is operated by a unincorporated Walnut-based company.

The bus company is Sina Coach Tour Company, located at 19720 East Walnut Drive South.

Passenger Khang Tien of Midway died in the crash. Authorities reported that 22 bus passengers were transported to various hospitals with minor to moderate injuries.

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Jian Fei Duan, 35, of Baldwin Park was driving a Sina Coach tour bus northbound on Interstate 15 from Pala Casino to Westminster. Duan was traveling at approximately 65 mph in the rain -- "unsafe speed for roadway conditions," said California Highway Patrol officer Travis Monks.

As he passed the Ontario Avenue freeway exit at approximately 2:30 p.m., Duan was "unable to maintain control of the bus on the wet roadway. The bus traveled off the roadway, into the center median area. [It] struck the center median guardrail and overturned onto its side, coming to rest blocking the #1 and #2 traffic lanes," Monks said. 

When asked for comment, Sina Coach declined to provide any statement Thursday, despite repeated calls to the company. 

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The company has been cited two times in the past two years for violations, reported The Press Enterprise.  One of those in March was for having a non-English-speaking driver and the other in January 2012 was for using a driver who didn't speak English and couldn't understand highway signs and signals in English, the newspaper reported. 

NBC reported that the company had not had a crash in at least the last two years. Sina Coach's vehicle maintenance rating is 42, indicating that 56 percent of similar bus companies have worse maintenance records while 42 rate better, the news station reported.

--Local Editor Toni McAllister contributed to this report.




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