Tire blew before fatal upstate bus crash

ROCHESTER -- A tour bus likely had a front tire blowout just before it veered off a highway and overturned, killing two passengers and injuring 35 people, three seriously, State Police and a company spokesman said Monday.

The driver of the Niagara Falls-bound bus, which was carrying Indian nationals from Washington, D.C., lost control Sunday and ran off Interstate 390 into woods near Avoca, 55 miles south of Rochester.

Ambulances and helicopters took seven of the most seriously injured victims to a hospital in Rochester. Three were in guarded condition there Monday, but State Police said they are expected to survive.

The bus driver, John Dinardo Jr., 58, has no past driving violations or criminal activity and his logbook was in order, New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said.

"There is no evidence of any excess speed, of any alcohol, of any driver fatigue or of any other violation," D'Amico said. "We believe it was just a blowout of the right front tire, but the investigation is continuing."

Based on markings in the road and witness statements, "everything appeared to be normal, traveling along," D'Amico said. "They heard this loud bang, which we're assuming was the blowout on the front tire."

The bus swerved off the highway into an embankment, where it overturned onto the driver's side and slid into a wooded area.

The bus, owned by Bedore Tours of North Tonawanda near Buffalo, left Washington on Sunday morning on a leg of the group's tour of the United States, State Police spokesman Mark O'Donnell said.

Dan Ronan of the American Bus Association, speaking for its member Bedore, said the driver called company-owner John O'Hare from his hospital bed after the wreck.

The front tires on the bus were new, having been replaced within the past couple of months, and the bus was a 2007 model, he said.

Ronan said a federal inspection in February 2010 gave the 61-year-old firm a "satisfactory" rating, the top of three grades. He said the review found 12 vehicles inspected from the fleet of 19 were in good working order, but it wasn't clear if the bus in the accident was inspected.

Investigators planned to interview Dinardo and witnesses and to inspect the vehicle to determine if there were any mechanical problems, O'Donnell said.

Tour bus industry safety has drawn heightened attention since the March 12 crash of a bus returning to Manhattan's Chinatown after an overnight excursion to a Connecticut casino. Fifteen people were killed when the bus fell onto its side and struck a pole, peeling off its roof.