PALM SPRINGS, California — The truck driver involved in the crash with a tour bus in Palm Springs that killed at least 13 people described his ordeal to a cab driver on his way to the hospital on Sunday.
“I’m
blessed to be alive and I pray for the families that didn’t make it,”
the driver of the big rig named “Bruce” told David Hirschfield, who
gave a video of their conversation to media outlets.
The
driver of a truck involved in a deadly collision with a tour bus in
Palm Springs, California, on Oct. 24, 2016, in a still from a cell phone
video. The truck driver has only been identified so far as "Bruce."
David Hirshfield via KESQ-TV
Hirschfield
picked up the trucker after he was released on the same day as the
accident from Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CBS Los Angeles reports. Bruce did not provide his last name at the time.
“The
impact just, you know, hit me from behind and I just blacked out for a
minute and when I gained my consciousness, I undid my seatbelt and
looked around. Thought I got ran over by something. That’s when I got
out of my truck,” Bruce said.
In the video Bruce has bandages on
one hand. He also suffered cuts to his right leg. Despite his wounds, he
got out of his truck and helped pull out bus passengers.
“You got
to think about others. I’m going to be alright. I want to get them
safe. I don’t know if the bus is going to blow up,” Bruce said.
Hirschfield says he recorded the conversation before he dropped Bruce off at a Palm Springs Hotel.
“He’s
quite a wonderful gentlemen I was privileged to pick him up,”
Hirschfield said. “I didn’t charge him. I said you’ve been through
enough today.” CBS Palm Springs affiliate KESQ reports
10 men and three women were killed in the crash that also injured 31
others. The cause of the early morning accident is still under
investigation.
Dr. Ricard Townsend at Desert Regional Medical Center told KESQ that the injuries in the crash were unique.
“When
you usually see someone involved in a high speed motor vehicle crash,
the things you see are big time broken bones,” Townsend explained. “This
is not the circumstances we were faced with. Most of the victims were
unrestrained and thrown through the air and ended up sustaining facial
trauma.”
Plastic surgeons had been called in to perform surgery on some of the crash victims.
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