morgan radford has been following this for us. what do you know? >> reporter: we're here at the scene of the accident. you can see authorities behind me. this happened when a passenger bus slammed into the back of a big rig. we've been here all morning and they had to cut away sides of that truck. inside you can see the contents are completely smashed. they're demolished, sh relded. authorities have been carrying away the bus seats that were insi inside. they had to rescue survivors ow of the window of that bus. that happened when the bus was leaving a casino outside of palm springs, they were headed to las vegas. 13 people have died, around 31 injured. we're waiting on a press conference from california highway patrol in the next hour. right now on the ground there's still lots of questions. what exactly happened? we know that truck driver was take on the hospital with minor injuries. he is expected to survive. but we're still unclear as to what happened to the passengers

on that bus and specifically to the driver of that bus. those are questions we will continue to answer throughout the day. >> you're waiting for that briefing. do we have any eyewitnesses, information from those who may have been in the area at the time? >> reporter: we actually have what we call user-generated content, videos that people have submitted to us who were driving by when they saw what happened. you can see the shock in their voices as they see the crash happen on this side. we don't have any video from those pass jr.s or what happened on the bus and the moments leading up to that accident, but, again, drivers coming down on i-10 west were shocked. this area has been closed down as we wait to find out exactly what happened and the details as they remove items from this crash site. again, people were shocked driving by just to see an accident of this scale. >> thank you, morgan. i know you'll be there for that briefing. we'll stop with you later when and if that does happen.

palm springs, california, of course a story we'll follow on msnbc. we'll turn our attention to the 2016 presidential race. new numbers today showing voters are overwhelmingly at this moment not buying into donald trump's claims of a, quote, rigged election. the abc news tracking poll shows hillary clinton widening her lead now over trump to 12 percentage points. the main reason increasing disapproval of trump hit 5ting 50%, cree barometer. 65% saying they reject trump's refusal to accept the election results if he loses. trump's campaign manager and hid son, eric, appeared on the sunday talk shows to defend his claims. take a listen. >> i don't like a lot of the information we've been reading about all the dead people in the rolls, all the people -- >> let me ask you about that. all of that stuff's been debunked. people die nearly 2.5 million people die every year that are

on the voter rolls. so it takes time to get dead people off the voter rolls. >> it takes our government an awful lot of time to do most things competently, and that's part of the problem. >> i father will accept it 100% if it's fair. you've got -- >> what does that mean? >> you have 24 million voters in this country, 1 in 8 that are misregistered to vote, meaning information is inaccurate. >> more signs of worry for trump here, the same abc poll shows registered republicans likely to vote for him. that number has fallen by seven percentage points in the last two weeks. trump looks to turn that around in his only rally tonight in florida. in person, early voting starts tomorrow. gabe gutierrez is in naples out outside the rally. what are you hearing from voters gathering for this rally? >> reporter: hi, richard. you mentioned the negative poll numbers but you wouldn't know it from the crowd assembled here. in person early voting starts tomorrow here in florida.

we've been speaking to several votes that say they've mailed in their ballots and still supporting donald trump despite all the allegations that have come out in the last few days. ma'am, what's your name? >> deana witty. >> from punta gorda, florida, about an hour from here. >> yes. >> reporter: you are a female voter sticking by trump. over the last days and weeks 11 accusers have come forward accusing him of some type of sexual misconduct. that's not swaying you at all. why? >> because that's many, many years ago. different man. i've done things in my life i don't want brought up again and i don't think that's what we need to be talking about. i don't think that means a thing to women because we know what kind of man we see and what we like. he's an outsider. he's a good family man. look at the kids he's raised. >> reporter: yeld he gave a speech where his campaign said he outlined many policy proposals yet in the first 10 to 15 minutes of his speech he threatened to sue those accusers

as well. do you worry he may be stepping on his message just a bit? >> no. if you listen to him and don't try to read between the lines like broadcast news and think of what he's really saying you'll understand it, because it's common sense. and no one has commons sense anymore in our government. >> reporter: ma'am, thank you very much. this is what we're hearing over and over from supporters here despite the sagging poll numbers, despite the allegations that have come out over the last few days. many of those here core sum porters say they will continue to stand by him. the question is will other female voters agree with that woman over the next coming weeks with just over two weeks until election day. richard? >> yeah. that question as in-person early voting starts as you're noting there, gabe, tomorrow, whether this snapshot that we're seeing in the polls gets frozen, right, in the outcome that we will find out come november. gabe, thank you so much for that interview. appreciate that. for more on trump's sinking

numbers and what's caused it, let's bring in your panel. victoria difrancesco, professor of mexican-american studies at university of texas. robert traynum, former bush senior adviser and eleanor clift at the day by beast. robert 50shgs% in this abc poll that just came out. as you watch the numbers grow not only in terms of the gap, that 50% is a major barometer to be watching here, hitting that bench mark. >> -- is not making any headway whatsoever with the american voter out there, particularly with independents who typically make um their minds at the last minute. it seems like paced based on what you said, more americans, donald trump, saying the election is rigged against them and the election is yet to happen, they're saying wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. this goes against everything we

believe in as americans. all the more reason why i'm going to vote for hillary clinton because she comes across as rational, as thoughtful, at least as policy forward. i may not agree with her on everything, especially when it comes to transparency, maybe not even on the trust issue, but if these are my options between donald trump and hillary clinton, according to the latest polls, they're moving towards hillary clinton. >> i want to play a little bit of what reince priebus said about the claims today about this, quote, rigged election, and i'll get your response. >> what he's saying is he wants to reserve all options and if there is grounds for a recount i will exercise my options. i know where his head's at. he is not willing to not concede if he loses and there's no fraud. >> victoria, your thought here. does what reince priebus is saying sync with what donald trump has been saying? >> i would say it does, and it's

really troubling. no one likes to lose, but that's the rule of the game. this is what democracy is about. it's been interesting to follow this play out in english media, in spanish language media. in english language media we're bothered, annoyed by what trump is saying. in the spanish language media, among latinos in general, it's really problematic because you have latinos who have come or their ancestors have come where this is an issue, where you don't have a peaceful transition to power, whether you're of cuban or dominican descent or puerto rican or central american descent. so this is really going to affect maybe those cuban-american voters that are on the fence about trump. maybe they're republicans but they don't like trump and they hear this, and i think this is going to push them over the edge. >> interesting point made there. at 59%, i'll go back to what i was saying a moment ago of likely voters rejecting trump's suggestion that the election is rigged. eleanor, these numbers are now

right in front of the trump campaign. doesn't look like they're going to shift gears though, doubling down on this rigged election claim here. >> nobody likes a sore loser, and i think the prospect of a rigged election that could alter an election outcome that now appears to be quite lopsided is really a tough case to make. and it seems to me that donald trump should start viewing some concession speeches from the past because this could be a fine moment for him if he goes out on a high note, although i must say it makes me a little uneasy that the media now seems to be totally buying the fact that this election is over. that may discourage turnout. i think donald trump is correct that he could probably shoot someone on 5th avenue, as he has said, and his supporters would still back him. they're going to be out there. so i think we have to be mindful that 16 days left in election, there's still a lot to happen,

still thousands more e-mails to come. so we better not pronounce this over before it's over. >> there are 34 states right now that are voting, early voting, either in person or mail-in. robert, when you look at the numbers here of this new abc news poll, if that is a snapshot, donald trump with will not win this election, but eleanor is warning folks need to still get out there and vote. your thought about who might be going to the polls right now in this early voting process. again, 34 states. >> according to the reports, it's two group -- three groups of people. the first group is military individuals overseas. the second group is a lot of registered democrats that are female males, ironically in north carolina, but also a lot of democrats and independents in florida, which is telling to me on two different fronts. one, florida has always been a battleground state.

and donald trump needs to win florida, especially if, in fact, he loses utah and arizona, which looks like he very well may. secondly, north carolina, which it's a very interesting state to me because many think of north carolina as a solidly republican state, but because some of the missteps of the governor with the bathroom bill, because of quite frankly north carolina switching back and over over the last couple presidential cycles, i do think north carolina is in the crosshairs of hillary clinton that she probably will win that state, which ironically it look like she may lose ohio but still win the general election. go ahead. >> both candidates are focusingifocusin focusinging their energies, north carolina, florida, ohio, that's where they'll be spending their time. victoria, part of his policy speech that came out yeld in gettysburg he said he would start to remove 2 million criminal undocumented immigrants on day one, then he said this about the border wall. let's listen to that.

>> end illegal immigration act. fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border. don't worr about it. remember, i said mexico's paying for the wall. with the full understanding that the country of mexico will be reimbursing the united states for the full cost of such a wall. >> so victoria, this entire messaging has not done well with most latino-american voters. the new word he's using there, reimburse, is that just a nuance or something really different here? >> richard, i heard that and the first thing that came to my mind was, good luck with that, that mexico is going to reimburse you for that. his integration policies have been nonsensical since the beginning. first of all, the wall would cost judgment wards of $20 billion, and at the end of the day it wouldn't be effective because the main reason immigrants come to this country, at least latino imgrants, is

because there are economic opportunities here and there are employers that want to hire them. so if you want to address illegal immigration and really address it, you need to get to the demand. you need to develop the everify system nationally, you need to put in sanctions for employers who don't follow the rule of law. you know, we talk about walls, look at el chapo, he builds tunnels under walls. we need to talk about internal enforcement and the stuff that's not as sensational or sexy as building the wall. >> eleanor, as we look at what was mentioned yesterday in that speech along with the wall, there were 20-plus other policy issues that he put out there. what did you take away from it? >> that it's all magical thinking. i think he would like to sign a number of executive orders his first day in office and he would do away with obamacare and whatever else that he has in mind, which goes against one of the main republican complaints, against president obama that he has overused his executive

authority. i think at this point of the campaign he has revealed so few specifics of how he would actually accomplish any of thhi goals that i really don't think people are taking what he says very seriously. i think that's what he see bearing out in the polls as well. i think people have basically kind of given up on his candidacy. >> we'll see fl that 100-day contract does resonate in coming polls because he's just started that messaging as of yesterday. robert, eleanor, victoria, stay with us. we'll get back to you later in the hour. with can the election be rigged as we were just talking about? if so, how hard would bit to do that? one expert will let us know. ♪ something new has arrived. ♪ uniquely designed for the driven. introducing the first-ever infiniti qx30 crossover.

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watch out for this fraud that might occur. the milwaukee police department put out a 70-page document on election frud. this is real, so let's not -- >> absolutely. >> -- go down this road we're acting like this is a figment of people's imagination. >> reince priebus trying to explain donald trump's claims of widespread voter fraud. meanwhile, balloting is under way in 34 states as of today. 22 of those states now holding either early in-person voting or no-excuse absentee voting. and that in-person early voting has really been a focus for trump right now as he urges his supporters to go to their polling places and act as election watchers. joining me now is pamela smith, president of the nonpartisan organization verified voting. pamela, thanks for joining us. can you react to what reince priebus said and how he was defending at least donald trump's statements right now about a rigged election and

voting fraud? >> we think it's extraordinary there is discussion of rig before most of the voting is even under way. we've started now but these claims had come up earlier. what we need to know about the voting system across the country is it isn't one single voting system. the vast majority of voters will be using paper ballot-type voting systems which can be audited and recounted to ensure that the outcome is correct. so that's the first thing to know. the second thing to know is that election officials are doing a lot of work to secure voting systems. 40 states and 27 additional counties as well as states have already taken up the department of homeland security on their offer to provide support on vulnerability scans, cyber risk assessments to make sure that all of the voting systems and the voter registration systems are safe and secure for our election. that's extraordinary. that's never happened before. so people are really going out

of their way to assure that the election is sound. >> there is election monitoring and an election observation training when we go to the polls and we are, you know, voting. what might they be doing in the background that we don't know? because it's something you probably are very familiar with in terms of how those monitors are making sure that these votes are done properly. >> sure. in fact, we've organized monitoring in the past. poll workers work to capture all the votes on the voting systems that are being used. it's their job at the end of the day to do a sanity check on the number of voter who is checked in and the number of ballots cast. they then take the information, all the materials, all the ballots, all the memory cards, everything to the central elections office where everything gets agated together and then you start seeing the reports of vote totals comes out on election night. this is all a very well-trained, carefully planned process, plan

b, plan c in case of contingencies. >> many, many layers. i know we don't have the full amount of time you would be able to describe all the steps they undertake. one of the comments being made for those who are concerned about this, quote/unquote rigged election, is they look back at al gore. they look back at florida. is this an accurate comparison of what this, quote/unquote, rigged election might be that they're concerned about? >> i don't know if that's their concern. we can't really speak to their motivation. the thing we know is that since 2000 in florida, laws have been passed to make voting better in the united states, to learn from the lessons of florida and improve things across the board. there's still more to do. our elections are not perfect, but they're a darn sight better than they used to be. and i think that's an important thing to know, the help america vote act of 2002 took extraordinary measures to improve elections across the board. >> and that question about 2000

is really about how at least at that moment, how to count ballots, right? and now they're talking about widespread fraud, which could be alleges a dimpbls there. pam lashgs thank you so much. pamela smith, president of verify voting, for clarifying for us. >> thank you. nevada is one of the states where early voting is under way, and among the nevadans to cast their ballots yesterday was this woman. gertrude. she's 100 years old. she was born before women even had the right to vote. gertrude is not keeping it a secret, though, who she's supporting. >> i've always voted. my folks made it very important that we always do that. and so i always have. i just said the first time we've had a woman president, and i think it would be a good idea.

ash carter arrived in irbil today for a closer look to take back mosul. e 100,000 troops taking pafrtrt this effort to root out isis militants. matt bradley has the latest. >> reporter: that's right, richard. secretary of defense ashton carter was in iraq today for the second time in as many days. and his mission here was twofold. he's here to reassure u.s. troops that this is a battle worth fighting alongside iraqi security fors who are all trying to take mosul from islamic state after their two-year occupation. but he's also here to try to choreograph this very delicate diplomatic dance among all the different constituent parts of the iraqi security forces. as american politicians know very well, iraq is a very difficult place to govern because of all these different ethnic and religious minority

groups and all of those groups are trying to participate in this one battle against a common enemy. ashton carter is here to try to resolve the differences and try to pak sure that this battle goes according to plan. it's not just about winning the battle. it's about winning it with buy-in from all these different groups. islamic state is definitely feeling the pressure. you can see that in the past couple days because they've set fire to this sulfur plant, a sulfur factory, just near the base where u.s. troops were stationed. these u.s. troops, they had to put on gas masks in order to avoid the fumes. we haven't actually smelled the fumes here where i'm standing in irbil, but it just goes to show islamic state starts to feel the pressure, they start to behave erratically. they've done this before in anbar and some other places throughout iraq and they're doing it now. so in many ways this is a sign of the pressure coming to bear in islamic state in mosul. we'll see how far this battle can go. >> nbc's matt bradley in iraq with the latest.

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you wouldn't put up with part of a pizza. um. something wrong? so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? you want the whole thing? yes, yes! live whole. not part. aleve. hei don't want one that's haded a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you don't plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax.com welcome back. i'm richard lui. we're expecting an update any minute on a deadly bus crash in southern california. authorities at moment saying at least 13 people were killed and more than 30 others injured when the bus collided with a semi on i-10 near palm springs. the ntsb is sending a team to investigate this. and again, we'll get straight to that if we can.

if we have more information on that horrible and deadly bus crash in southern california. surging in the polls. hillary clinton is looking to run up the score against donald trump in battleground north carolina today, a state where she holds a narrow lead over trump in the most recent poll. clinton appeared in raleigh this afternoon with mothers who have lost children under violent or otherwise controversial circumstances. this is what she said in part. >> for everything i see has no respect for this -- >> all right. that was not the right sound bite, but when we do get to it we will play it for you. now, with this widening lead for hillary clinton as she moves to the white house, democrats have set their sight on the senate going down ballot, president obama will be campaigning in nevada today, one of six states that could decide the battle for the senate and the balance of power. nevada, pennsylvania, are

traditional swing states. others could go either way. that's a snapshot of the toss-ups right now. the senate balance of power as it stands right now, 44-54. democrats need only a handful of seats to tip that balance in their favor. joining me right now, sadie weiner, communications director for the democratic senatorial campaign committee. of note, msnbc did invite the republican senatorial campaign as well to join our discussion today, but we did not receive a response. sadie, as you look at the three states that have been traditionally conservative -- north carolina, missouri, indiana -- a 538 poll looking at these races and it suggests that the races are trending in favor of democrats right now. why is this happening? >> one of the things that was so good for democrats in our ert to take back the senate majority this year is the map and the map were in our favor. we needed only four seats to

pick up the senate if we maintained control of the white house. one of the things we did that was so important was e not only recruited strong candidates in the traditional battlegrounds, new hampshire, nevada, florida, but we really expanded the map into states like north carolina, indiana, and missouri, where republicans didn't want to have to be spending time or energy this year. >> it's a tight senate rice rais in indiana. that's mike pence, the republican vice presidential pick here, in his home state. there's also virginia as well that you could be looking at. what are the crucial races you're watching that are toss-ups? >> it's all of the six or seven. it would be hard to pick one that was any more important than the other. there's a couple where early voting has already started. north carolina, nevada. we've seen democrats already racking up impressive turnout scores in those two states, which is hugely important if we can run up the score even before election day. >> why is mike pence in his home

state having trouble at least getting the republican in front in the polling numbers there? >> in indiana, former senator evan bayh is running for senate. he has a connection unlike any other states we're looking at. one of the main issues at play has been outsourcing, for example, and so the republican senate candidate, todd young, has been getting slammed for his support for taking money from companies that have outsourced indiana jobs. it's a really important issue. >> i want to look at missouri if we can. another tight race there. this was supposed to be an easy win for the gop. what's at play there from what you're seeing? >> definitely. this is one of our dark horse races. people didn't think that roy blunt would be vulnerable, that he could be unseated, and it's definitely looki like it's trending towards democrats like we have the momentum in this race. our candidate is secretary of state jason candor, an army veteran, incredibly strong

messenger for the case he's making against roy blunt, which is that senator blunt has spent 20 years in washington, becoming deeply entrenched with lobbyists. everyone in his family is a lobby wist k street and he's really forgotten about the people of missouri. >> talk about pennsylvania, clinton leading there, the gop candidate pat toomey is distancing himself from trump at the moment. this sth an issue here when you look at these six or seven races where the republican candidates are polling higher even than donald trump himself and therefore he's dragging down their potential win in these states? pennsylvania might be one example. >> well, he's not doing a very good job distancing himself from donald trump. he's really refusing to stand up to him. just last night you saw secretary clinton making the case elect democratic kaltie mcginty, our candidate running a strong and spirited challenge against senator toomey. the issue with senator toomey, he refuses to stand up to donald trump. for months we've watched as donald trump called mexicans

criminals and mocked disabled reporters and yet pat toomey says he needs more information. so i think in addition to that, toomey is getting a lot of attention on his true voting record, voting to defund planned parenthood, voting against foreclosure protects for pennsylvania homeowners. it's not a record that the people of pennsylvania are ready to send back to the senate. >> sadie weiner, communications drk or the for the democratic senatorial campaign community committee, thanks for stopping by. >> thanks so much. still ahead -- >> now, some of you haven't noticed, hillary isn't laughing as much as the rest of us. that's because -- >> all right. donald trump's performance at the al smith dinner might have fallen a little bit flat as you heard some booing. how is he performing with catholic voters overall? and next hour i'll talk with reporters from two historically red states georgia and utah that may go plu this election. ness by when growth presents itself?

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if there's one place hillary clinton and donald trump were expected to remain civil it was the al smith dinner, a fund-raiser for catholic charities and a place for presidential candidates to offer some good-natured ribbing in the middle of the heat of the battle. but with new york archbishop timothy dolan watching thursday night, trump made what seemed not like a joke to many, slamming clinton when it come tosca thol schism. >> here she is tonight in public pretending not to hate catholics. [ boos ] >> isle bring back our panel, victoria defrancesco, professor of mexican-american studies at the university of texas, robert traynham, msnbc contributor, former senior adviser to george w. bush and vice president dick

cheney and eleanor swift from the daily bice. victoria, did he cross a line in the way he was addressing this group of catholics when they were supposed to have some fun? >> yeah. it was a cringe worthy event. every moment of it. donald trump is missing the mark on the homo je nay ti of catholics. yes, they tend to officially be against abortion, more pro-life, but what he's also not seeing is in addition to abortion there's the issue of immigration that the catholic church has officially come out in support of immigrants, in support of a more open immigration process. donald trump did not read the crowd right. he thought with his support for pro-choice policies he'd be able to win the crowd and he completely missed the mark. >>'m going to look at some of the numbers here, eleanor, where

catholic voters stand. polling from august shows clinton with nearly double the support of catholics as trump. why would donald trump suggest she hated a group that by the poll numbers she's doing quite well and barack obama also did quite well with them in 2012 as well? >> well, he was playing off some of these e-mails, and they were e-mails between i think it was jennifer palm mieri with the campaign and a yesman at the center for american progress basically venting their frustration that the catholic hierarchy isn't as liberal as some of its members. and so he was playing on that, that hillary clinton somehow doesn't like catholics. in fact, democrats do quite well. a third of catholics are hispanic catholics and donald trump is certainly alienating a lot of them. but the big prize is white catholics, which mitt romney and john mccain won rather handily in the last two elections, and they are now defecting also to

hillary clinton. and what's fascinating about this is they're obviously not voting as one issue voters. and at that dinner, hillary clinton delivered a very strong endorsement of roe v. wade and also the medical reasons for late-term abortions, and that is apparently -- catholics -- many catholics are not going to vote on that single issue, and that's somewhat of a change. >> not single issue certainly. robert, let's build on what eleanor was alluding to there, the issue of abortion. trump brought it up at the dinner. nearly half of catholics surveyed saying abortion is a very important issue in who they vote for. with that said, then, which of the two candidates theoretically should be ahead right now? some of the headlines have been reading recently trump and the catholic vote, it's his to lose. that was in "the hill" for instance. >> it should be in theory his to

lose, but donald trump has a very complicated relationship with the republican party. is he a conservative? is he a progressive? is he somewhere in between? we really don't know simply because, one, he doesn't have a long history and relationship with the republican party, but also, two, he has no public -- i don't know what you want to call it, whether it's a record or history or declarative statements. we simply don't know. i think a lot of people out there are frankly confused about his position on partial birth abortion. >> robert, we have to go to a live press brief right now in california on that bus crash, so robert, eleanor, victoria, stand by for us. straight to southern california and get the latest from officials there. >> what we know is that this morning at approximately 5:17, a collision occurred westbound i-10 just west of indian canyon road in desert hot springs. a 1996 mc i-pass jer bus transporting 44 passengers struck the rear of a freightliner truck with a trailer in the number three

lane. chp and fire rescue personnel arrived at minutes and triage was immediately established by fire rescue. tragically, 13 people were killed including the driver of the bus. additionally, 31 passengers were injured and transported to three local hospitals including desert regional, itz hour hospital, and jfk memorial. all the passengers are believed to be adults. identities are unknown largely due to the swift extraction and immediate triage care that they needed. for the family, the riverside family coroner's assistance center is located at 800 south redlands avenue in paris, california. the phone number is 951-443-2300. 951-443-2,300.

the freightliner truck was hauling food products and the driver had minor injuries of the freightliner. the bus driver's identity is not known at this time, and drugs or alcohol or fatigue is unknown. the bus company is named usa holiday bus, and they're based in los angeles. they were coming from the red earth casino near the sultan sea. the bus had been inspected by highway patrol inspectors in 2014, 2015, and as late as april 2016, and no mechanical deficiencies were noted. the freeways estimated to open approximately 4:00 p.m. today. and the investigation will be ongoing. the chp which handles this region as well as our multidils pli nary accident investigation team, the reconstruction specialists, and ntsb are going to be assisting. with that, i open it up for

questions. >> what did survivors have to say about the accident? >> very few statements. there were a few survivors who mentioned they believed everybody was asleep on the bus. >> chief, i know you've seen a lot of accidents. i know this wasn't pretty. can you give us some insight as to how bad this was in your seeing accidents all these years? >> in almost 35 years i've never been to a crash where there's been 13 confirmed fatal accidents, so it's tough, tough for all of us. the fire department who handled it, chp personnel, it's not an easy thing. and you never get used to this kind of thing. again, our sympathies to the families. we're doing to do everything we can to find out specifically what the cause of the accident was. >> what about the injuries? >> the injuries are minor to moderate. outside of that i can't tell you what they're going to be. >> where were the bodies, majority of the bodies found and what does that tell you? >> they were in their seats essentially. so that tells me they were seated properly, that nobody was standing, and that due to the

impact -- i will tell you the speed of the bus was so significant that when it hit the back of the big rig, the trailer, the trailer itself entered about 15 feet into the bus. so you can see that it was a substantial impact. >> and yet that driver was -- was jifred but not seriously? >> the driver of the bus was killed. the driver of the big rig is not killed. he's injured but it's minor to moderate. >> are you looking at speeding or texting or -- >> right now we're looking at everything. what we're hoping to get is i'm going to read you what this is because the main guys are the ones who are the experts but we're hoping that modern buses usually have some kind of black box or data control device. we're hoping to get a data recorder, but it's a 1996 model. we're not so sure it's going to be there. >> would you say there were people asleep, most of the passengers on board were asleep?

>> that was the statement of the passengers. >> chief, did you describe the conditions, the freeway conditions and just -- was there fog or anything else? >> no, nothing like that. the only thing that was going on was there was a maintenance crew that was periodically stringing wires across the roadway, so occasional traffic breaks were used to slow down traffic so they could get the wires across. traffic was naturally slowed down, but this had been going on for several hours of the night and we had no problem. sir, in the back. >> [ inaudible question ]. was it on time or -- >> i couldn't tell you that. i don't know. >> did the bus driver have any conversations with the company prior to going to this place or leaving this place about any mechanical issues? >> at this stage, no. the only thing i can tell you about mechanical issues is the three inspections did not reveal anything with the bus. >> do we know if the bus driver

is also the owner of the company? >> we don't know the identity of the driver right now. >> how were they when you guys got ther were they calm? were they in tears? how were they when you first got there? >> i wasn't at scene so, i can't tell you. >> the majority of the dead, were they in the front, do you know? >> the 13 fatal victims? >> right. >> this is my guess, based on the significance of the impact i would say yes. >> but the bus didn't roll? >> no. >> what are the seat belt laws and did this bus have seat belts, do you know? >> i don't know yet. >> chief, speed limit there is 5 55 or 70 and you said significant based on what you've seen. what would you call significant? >> in terms of what context? >> what you were talking about as far how you would say constitutes significant? >> i don't want to say that he was over the pead limit. i don't know what the speeds are. i will tell you the bus was traveling significantly faster

than the trailer that it struck from behind. in the back. >> the families, are the passengers from los angeles? heading back to l.a.? >> that's what we're trying to piece together. we're assuming many were from los angeles because that's where the bus originated. >> has it been determined whether the truck [ inaudible ] truck stop off indian boulevard going at a slow rate and the bus was going at a fast rate? has it been determined? >> it doesn't appear to have anything to do wh him entering the freeway. he wasstablished on the freeway. >> do you know how fast the truck was going? could it have been obstructing traffic? >> no, it wasn't obstructing traffic. it was going slower because of the traffic breaks and the amount of traffic that was backed up ahead of it. >> what's that driver's statement, his account of what happened? >> the truck driver? i don't have that. >> was the wind a factor at snaul. >> the wind? absolutely not. >> do you know how fast traffic

was going at the time? >> i don't. >> were there skid marks? >> the skid marks appear to be from what i saw at the scene and talking to the sergeant, the skid marks that were at scene are primarily due to the bus hitting the back of the big rig and pushing it forward. there didn't appear to be braking skid mark prs ts from t but don't quote me on that yet. that's yet to be determined. >> how long were those skid marks? >> i couldn't tell you. not right now. >> have family members been notified? >> not every one of them. unfortunately several passengers have not been identified. some i.d.s were not valid. >> [ inaudible ]? >> no. the looking at the bus driver log, is that the chp or national highway traffic safety administration? >> we'll look at it first or ntsb. >> the fatalities you said from the front oklahoma city or you believe the front section? >> because of the impact where the bus entered the back of the big rig the majority of people

who were killed were in the front section of the bus, yes. >> were they seated inside or -- >> as far as we know, everybody was seated. like we said, the victim statements, i don't believe they have seat belts on this bus. >> what's the year of this bus? >> 1996 mci. >> chief, can you speak about the trying to identify the victims and potentially invalid identifications? >> we're hoping a lot of family members will come forward and contact the coroner's hotline and then we'll have to backtrack. obviously we're going to contact the bus company, see if they had a manifest, go accept by step to try and identify everyone. then of course we'll be talking to the people in the hospital who had injuries who can provide information based on what happened in the crash that they may know if they were awake and what information they might be able to provide about the other passengers. >> do you know specifically where it was headed to in los angeles? >> i don't. >> do you know if the passengers

were part of an organization or if they were travelers? >> as far as i know at this stage of the game they were folks who were going to different casinos. >> any word on the history of the bus company? have they had violations? >> well, it appears from our records it's an owner/operator, that this is the only bus owned by the owner, and that like i said earlier he had beenment inned three years in a row and there were no mechanical violations noted. >> some of these one-man, one bus operations, do those stick out to chp officers who patrol this area? do they have a different history than maybe a larger company with a big fleet? >> not necessarily, no. >> age ranges of the people on the bus? >> we don't know for sure. we know they were all adults. i can't tell you definitively. can you speak about why the bus driver isn't identified? >> because we haven't identified

him yet. >> has the family not been notified? >> i don't know. i don't have his name. i don't know what information they found on him in terms of a driver's license. i just don't have that right now. >> the number three lane, how many lanes in that area -- >> california highway patrol there briefing reporters on that tragic crash that involved the 1996 bus. the question still on hand right now, what is the identity of the bus driver. the bus that then plowed into a tractor-trailer in front, killing, again, 13 people. there may be -- and he was very clear to say here, the chief was, from california highway patrol, a data recorder, potential potentially, and so they're looking for that as well. so the idea of the bus driver potentially a data recorder, and then three, they don't know the condition of that driver, whether food, drug, or fatigue was involved. that's a third question that they're watching right now. this bus coming from the red

earth casino in sultan city to los angeles, they believe, and 30 minutes into that trip is when this crash happened. we'll continue to watch and listen to the chief as he gives more information. we'll be right back. [ rear alert sounds ] [ music stops ] ♪ just can't wait to get on the road again ♪ [ front assist sounds ] [ music stops ] [ girl laughs ] ♪ on the road again ♪ like a band of gypsies we go down the highway ♪ [ beetle horn honks ] no matter which passat you choose, you get more standard features, for less than you expected. hurry in and lease the 2017 passat s for just $199 a month.

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