A tour bus carrying members of country singer Josh Turner's road crew was involved late Wednesday night (Sept. 18) in a fatal crash in Paso Robles, Calif.
Per NBC affiliate KSBY-TV, the bus crash occurred at 11:45 p.m. local lime on Highway 46 near McMillan Canyon Road in Shandon, Calif. Officials from the San Luis Obispo County police and fire departments and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said that the tour bus drove off the road through 20 yards of vegetation before going down an 80-foot cliff and hitting a dry riverbed.
There were at least eight people on the bus, including the driver. According to the Associated Press, one person died in the crash, while two suffered major injuries and five suffered moderate injuries.
While names of the victims have yet to be released, media reports indicate that that Turner and his Nashville-based band were on separate passenger buses.
CHP officials have ruled out drugs or alcohol as the cause of the one-vehicle accident and will explore the possibility of mechanical issues.
The Cal Fire Slo Twitter account helped break the news with photos from the accident scene.
[FINAL] #CenterIC Confirmed Tour Bus of the Josh Turner Road Crew was involved in this accident. Mr. Josh Turner and band were in different buses and not injured. #CHP and #Firefighters will be at scene several hours for investigation and clean up. pic.twitter.com/zVnPEjy5BN
— CAL FIRE SLO (@CALFIRE_SLO) September 19, 2019
The road crew members had just left central California venue Vina Robles Amphitheatre and was en route to another Turner concert scheduled Friday (Sept. 20) at State Fair Park in Yakima, Wash.
Update: The man killed in the bus crash has been identified as David Turner, a sound man and longtime member of Josh Turner's crew. CMT reports that David Turner had worked on Josh Turner's crew for 12 years. He had also worked with crews for Tammy Wynette, Patty Loveless and Hank Williams, Jr. and Conway Twitty.
David Turner was 64.
This post was updated on September 19 at 3:15 p.m.
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