Driver Charged in 21 Tour Bus Crash Deaths

The driver of a Starline Sightseeing Tours Co. bus that plunged into the icy waters of the Walker River in Mono County last May 30 was charged Tuesday with manslaughter in connection with the deaths of 21 elderly passengers who perished in the crash.

The Mono County district attorney’s office filed a 45-count criminal complaint against Ernst August Klimeck. The complaint included a number of alleged Vehicle Code infractions, in addition to the manslaughter charges.

The bus crash was one of the worst in the nation’s history. In its aftermath, a number of regulating agencies and the Legislature have moved to tighten restrictions on the tour bus industry.

Klimeck, who denied responsibility for the crash in interviews with investigators, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But his Los Angeles attorney, Robert E. Courtney, said that Klimeck, 47, of North Hollywood, will surrender for arraignment in the Mammoth Lakes, Calif., Justice Court on Jan. 26.

“Until we see the results of the district attorney’s investigation, we have no further comment,” Courtney said.

Press Inquiries

Starline Sightseeing Tours referred press inquiries to Courtney.

Klimeck was charged with 21 counts each of felony and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, as well as one count each of crossing a double yellow line and failing to drive on the right half of the road. Klimeck also was charged with one count of not driving with a proper license classification.

The last allegation deals with Klimeck’s lack of a valid federal medical certificate, sources close to the investigation said.

In federal hearings conducted on the Mono County crash in Sparks, Nev., last September, it was disclosed that medical records showed that Klimeck, a diabetic, had last been examined by his doctor for a certificate in 1983. That conflicts with a medical certificate purportedly signed by Klimeck’s personal physician dated April 21, 1985, and on file with the U. S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety.

Conviction on any of the felony counts could subject Klimeck to up to six years in state prison. The misdemeanor counts, which carry maximum one-year jail sentences, were filed in case the more serious charges are dismissed, the sources said.

The Walker River tragedy occurred on a return trip from Reno for 46 elderly Southern Californians, most of them residents of a Santa Monica retirement home. In addition to the 21 fatalities, 20 of the passengers were injured.

Briefly Hospitalized

Klimeck, who was briefly hospitalized after the crash, reportedly told federal investigators that at the time of the crash, he was traveling well below the posted 40-m.p.h. speed limit. He also claimed that he heard a sound that he described as a “plop” shortly before the crash that could have been a mechanical defect in the German-made tour bus.

California Highway Patrol investigators, however, determined after a lengthy probe that Klimeck was traveling 66.4 m.p.h. when the southbound bus veered across the center line of the two-lane highway, swerved to avoid an oncoming car, smashed into a guard fence, veered back onto the highway and then flipped over into the river.

Several of the victims were trapped in the half-submerged bus, others were tossed through the windows and swept downstream.

CHP investigators also concluded that the bus had not malfunctioned and that Klimeck was simply driving too fast on the snaking stretch of U.S. 395, 20 miles north of Bridgeport.

Speeding Tickets

Department of Motor Vehicles records show that Klimeck had eight speeding citations since 1981, including two with Starline buses.

After its probe, the CHP recommended in late September that Klimeck be charged with manslaughter. But to the surprise of Highway Patrol officials, the Mono County district attorney’s office launched a separate investigation of the crash, which concluded with Tuesday’s filing of the criminal complaint.

Included in the follow-up investigation was a partial reenactment of the crash using an identical bus with the same tire pressure, weight load and weather conditions, CHP officials said Tuesday. Highway Patrol officials were asked to observe the secret reenactment, which did not, however, include the bus driving at an unsafe speed or driving off into the river.

Refused to Comment

The Mono County district attorney’s office refused to comment on Tuesday’s developments beyond a press release listing the various charges and the arraignment date.

But sources familiar with the district attorney’s investigation said that prosecutors found nothing that conflicted with the Highway Patrol’s findings nor did they discover anything significantly new in the separate probe.

When the CHP originally released its recommendations, Highway Patrol officials indicated that they might also seek charges against Starline Sightseeing Tours for reportedly giving Klimeck an unrealistic schedule that he could meet only by speeding. Klimeck’s tour bus log showed that four days before the crash, he had been on duty for 17 consecutive hours, including 12 1/2 hours behind the wheel. Federal regulations limit a bus driver to 10 hours of driving in a 15-hour period.

A Mono County source familiar with the district attorney’s decision to prosecute Klimeck said that no Starline officials will be charged in connection with the accident.

Starline, however, has been named in a series of civil suits stemming from the crash that also name Klimeck and the California Department of Transportation.