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Driver admits to drinking before crash with bus

Posted at 8:18 PM, Mar 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-14 23:28:49-04

UPDATE: According to his arrest report, Henderson resident Orlando Gunn admitted to drinking tequila in the car moments before the crash with the shuttle bus.

Saturday wasn't the first time Gunn had been arrested for driving under the influence. He was arrested back in 2010 in Kansas on a DUI charge.

Nevada Highway Patrol reported that Gunn was swaying as he walked toward the patrol vehicle. The trooper also observed that Gunn's eyes were bloodshot and his speech was slurred. Gunn later failed field sobriety tests as well as a preliminary breath test.

In the crash, Gunn was arrested for 10 counts of felony DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane, open alcohol container in vehicle and failure to wear a seatbelt.

Three female adult passengers from Gunn's vehicle, a Toyota Selica, and all eight occupants in the shuttle bus were transported from the scene to UMC and Sunrise trauma centers. Two female adult occupants remain at UMC Trauma in critical condition.

ORIGINAL STORY

Nevada Highway Patrol says 12 people were injured in a crash involving a small passenger bus Saturday evening with one person in critical condition. 

The driver of a 2000 black Toyota sedan was being investigated for possible impairment after it and a silver shuttle bus collided near U.S. 95 and Washington Avenue around 8 p.m. The 10-passenger bus overturned on its side.

10 people on the shuttle bus and 2 in the black Toyota were taken to area hospitals.

The driver of the Toyota was arrested on multiple counts of driving under the influence. 51-year-old Orlando Gunn also faces charges of reckless driving with disregard for safety, failure to maintain lane, failure to wear safety belt and open alcoholic container in a vehicle.

"To flip over a passenger bus, a tour bus, is going to take a significant amount of force to do that," said NHP Trooper Jason Buratczuk. "Witnesses stayed on scene and reported the vehicle as being recklessly driving at a high rate of speed."

Interstate 15 between U.S. 95 and Washington Avenue was closed for hours after the crash.