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Driver in Crash Called Inattentive11 March 2003LAS VEGAS -- As reported by the Los Angeles Times: ``It had all the makings of a wild weekend in Las Vegas: a tour bus filled with celebrating gamblers and a 66-year-old birthday girl, each of whom shelled out just $30 for the round-trip from Los Angeles and a hotel room. ``At the wheel was a driver who called himself Columbo, distinctive in his cowboy hat, boots and gold jacket. Passengers said he drove with one hand, talked on his cell phone with the other, and listened to his Walkman or laughed with the others as a movie played on the bus' six TV monitors. He watched the movie, too, on a small TV screen to the left of his steering wheel, said two passengers, including one who sat alongside him in a door-well jump seat. ``… Suddenly, their weekend escape collapsed into a chaos of screeching brakes, crashing steel, broken bones and blood. ``… The CHP has yet to interview Davis or ask him about the passenger reports, including the one that he was watching the movie, which is prohibited. ``…No one was killed, but among the 54 people in the second bus, and 57 in the first, about 100 were injured, 46 of them requiring hospitalization. `` '[The driver] was preoccupied and his mind needed to focus,' said passenger James Farmer, who spent much of the trip in the jump seat because of the shortage of seats. 'He was on his cell phone a lot,' lining up other tours and complaining he needed to get back to Los Angeles to pick up his next group, Farmer said…" |