Driver of Tour Bus Denies He Was Speeding

RENO —  The driver of a tour bus that plunged off a winding road and into an eastern Sierra river last week, leaving 19 dead, has told authorities that he was traveling at well under the suggested speed of 40 m.p.h. when he heard a sound that he described as a “plop” and lost control.

Ernst A. Klimeck told investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board that he was traveling at about 30 m.p.h. in third gear when he heard the odd sound on the Starline Sightseeing Tour Bus, carrying 40 elderly Santa Monica-area residents.

Won’t Face Reporters

Klimeck’s account was made public Monday by Jim Burnett, leader of the team of investigators who arrived here within hours of Friday’s crash. Klimeck, who was among the 22 people injured, has declined to discuss the accident with reporters.

Burnett said authorities do not know what the sound might have been, but he said they have not yet found any mechanical defects. He said they do not know the cause of the accident and probably will not conclude their investigation for several months.

Burnett said investigators have found no signs that Klimeck tried to apply the bus’s brakes as it veered across U.S. 395. The bus flipped over at least three times and tumbled down an embankment before coming to rest right side up in the swiftly flowing Walker River.

With 18 confirmed dead, authorities called off the search Monday for the one passenger still missing because the river was swollen by a heavy spring runoff.

The 19th victim, a woman whose name has not been released, was presumed drowned.

“There’s nothing to search for if you can’t make a sighting” in the rushing water, explained Mono County Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Padilla. He added that it may take several weeks for the river to subside enough for the body to be found.

Burnett told a news conference that tire marks along 850 feet of the highway, which had been interpreted by a California Highway Patrol officer as skid marks, were not made by braking.

“Those are not skid marks,” Burnett said. “We have found no evidence on the marks of any braking.”

Reason for Tire Marks

Burnett indicated that the tire marks were probably left because the bus was tilting to one side as it careened across the roadway north of Yosemite National Park. The marks were probably caused by “the loading of the bus on one wheel or set of wheels,” he said.

He did not disclose what Klimeck told investigators about braking.

Passengers, en route home from a four-day excursion to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Reno, have given conflicting reports about the vehicle’s speed at the time of the crash. Some have said the 47-year-old driver was speeding. Others have said he was not.

A warning sign posted just before the fatal curve suggested a speed of 40 m.p.h. Such signs are placed before sharp curves as a warning to drivers, but they do not constitute a legal speed limit, CHP officials said.

Burnett said investigators have not yet determined the bus’ speed. He said none of the passengers interviewed has been able to “provide objective reasons for speculating that the driver was speeding.”

However, he said, efforts to confirm Klimeck’s account have been complicated by the fact that the bus was equipped with automatic transmission. As a result, he said, “we may not be able to confirm” that he was in third gear--a factor that would help in making speed calculations.

Burnett said technicians examining the bus in Bridgeport, Calif., have found “no information that would suggest any mechanical problems with the bus with one small exception.”

“One tire,” he said, “was not in as good condition as we would like. But that has no apparent connection to the accident.”

He said the suspension on the bus has not been fully examined, but the steering and braking systems had been checked out and appeared to have been working properly.

Burnett said repairs to improve engine performance were made on the turbo system the day before the accident. “We find nothing wrong with the repair work,” he said.

Klimeck has been convicted of speeding four times within the last three years, and, as a result, has four “points” on his driving record, said Ed Snyder, manager of driver’s license services for the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

“I would not say that’s particularly unusual,” Snyder said. Because commercial drivers spend more time behind the wheel than most other drivers, state law allows them to accumulate more points before their licenses are suspended, he said.

A driver of an automobile “is considered to be a negligent driver if he gets a point count of four in 12 months, six in 24 months or eight in 36 months,” Snyder said. “A commercial driver is allowed a point count total of six in 12 months, eight in 24 months and 10 in 36 months.”

Klimeck began driving buses 30 years ago in Germany after a formal six-month training course, Burnett said. He has been driving in this country for 13 years, the last seven months for Starline, the NTSB official added.

Only One License Found

Klimeck’s license was suspended in 1984 because he had two outstanding citations, Snyder said.

The DMV official added that he had been “real concerned because of news accounts about the possibility (that Klimeck had) two licenses,” one under Ernst A. Klimeck and another under Ernest A. Klimeck.

“We’ve done all kinds of searches, looking for two licenses, and we can’t come up with it,” he said. “Prior to June 11, 1985, Mr. Klimeck went by the name of Ernst. And his 1977 license and 1981 license were listed under the name of Ernst. But when he came in for renewal in June, 1985, he asked that it be renewed under the name Ernest,” Snyder said. “It was, under the same driver’s license number he had before.”

Authorities have requested any motor vehicle records other states may have on Klimeck, Burnett said.

Klimeck was discharged from Washoe Medical Center in Reno on Sunday, but efforts by The Times to locate him Monday were unsuccessful. He had lived in Glendale until perhaps six months ago, then had his mail forwarded to the Franklin Motel in Hollywood, a dingy, beige building on a dead-end street facing the Hollywood Freeway. Motel employees who recalled his name said he may have worked there as a handyman for a short time, but no longer lives there.

A manager said he did not leave a forwarding address.

Thirteen victims remained hospitalized on Monday, including two in critical condition and seven others listed as serious. Among those in serious but stable condition was Warren Biscailuz, 68, a retired Los Angeles deputy city attorney and son of the late Eugene Biscailuz, Los Angeles County sheriff from 1932 to 1958.

Ted Rohrlich reported from Los Angeles and Louis Sahagun reported from Reno. Times staff writer Denise Hamilton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.