YUCAIPA, Calif. (KABC) -- Investigators are combing through the wreckage of a tour bus crash on State Route 38 near Yucaipa that killed eight people and injured 38 others Sunday.

 

According to California Highway Patrol, the bus collided with two other vehicles around 6:30 p.m. on the mountain highway north of Yucaipa and below Forest Falls.

 

"The tour bus was traveling southbound on Route 38 just north of Bryant when, for reasons that are still undetermined, lost control, rear ended a Saturn sedan and then collided with a Ford pickup truck that was towing a work trailer," CHP spokesman Mario Lopez said.

 

Seventeen people were critically hurt in the crash when the bus overturned. Multiple victims were ejected from the bus upon impact.

 

The coroner was on scene of the major injury crash Monday, working with CHP in a cooperative manner. The CHP's multidisciplinary accident team was also called to the scene. Lopez said the number of deaths is expected to rise because the coroner was starting to remove bodies from the mangled vehicle.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board also launched a go-team to investigate the accident led by highway safety investigator Robert Accetta Monday.

 

Authorities said the only information they've been able to confirm is that the bus is registered from National City, Calif.

 

"We don't know if the passengers are from that area. We've heard statements that they're possibly from Mexico but we can't speculate on that right now," Lopez said. "We don't know if they're all Mexican nationals or if some of them boarded on the U.S. side."

 

Lopez said officials were working on retrieving the passenger list from the bus to determine the identities and nationalities of the victims.

 

The Mexican consulate was at the scene of the crash.

 

READ MORE HERE