Five bus passengers died after their tour bus crashed into a highway center divider in California Tuesday, April 28.

The bus was reportedly carrying a group of French or French Canadian tourists on U.S. 101 near Soledad, CA, about 115 miles south of San Francisco.

The bus slid on its side, ejecting several passengers, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Four people died instantly. A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol told the Times that several injured and killed passengers were ejected from the bus onto a street below the overpass.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation at press time.

The crash sparked a major rescue, the Times reported, as eight helicopters and more than a dozen ambulances raced to the scene.

The bus was a charter reportedly operated by Orion Pacific, which is believed to be owned by a company in Orange, CA.

The crash was the latest in a series of injury accidents involving buses.

Twenty people were injured Monday when a Greyhound Bus blew a tire and crashed on Interstate 20 in Alabama. The bus hit a guardrail before crashing into a bridge column. None of the injuries were considered serious, according to CBS-TV.

In October, nine people were killed and more than 30 injured when a bus headed to a Northern California casino flipped over north of Sacramento.