PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — The driver of a gambling tour bus that slammed into a truck used to joke with customers and playfully urged them to save enough money for hamburgers, said a woman who knew him.

Teodulo Elias Vides told customers in Spanish as they returned to Los Angeles at sunrise from their weekend jaunts, "We've arrived at reality."

Alba Martinez, 43, once asked Vides why he joked with his customers and he replied: "It's so they have some fun."

Martinez spoke with The Associated Press on Tuesday, two days after the bus slammed into the rear of a truck that was creeping along at 5 mph because of utility work. The crash on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs was one of California's deadliest vehicle crashes, killing 13 and injuring 31.

Martinez's friend, Dora Galvez de Rodriguez, and the 59-year-old bus driver were among the dead. On Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol identified the 13th fatality — 50-year-old Tony Mai of Los Angeles.

Vides owned USA Holiday and was listed as the only driver, according to federal and state records.

Inspection records kept by the CHP show that USA Holiday was deemed unsatisfactory on several levels, though it had not received that rating since 2010. In that year, the company's unnamed driver received an "unsatisfactory" rating both overall and in relation to "controlled substance and alcohol testing results."

Before 2010, USA Holiday had periodic unsatisfactory ratings for, among other things, maintenance and equipment.

The cause of Sunday's crash is undetermined. The National Transportation Safety Board planned to look into the history of the bus, its owner-driver and other circumstances, such as what he was doing during the four to five hours the bus was at the Red Earth Casino in the desert town of Thermal before making the 135-mile trip back to Los Angeles.

"There's no indication whatsoever that the driver applied the brakes," CHP Border Division Chief Jim Abele said Monday, citing the power of the impact and the fact that no skid marks were found.

"They just kept pulling bodies stuck in between the seats," Abele said. "It's just due to this bus going so fast into the back of the truck. Why he did that, that's what we're trying to find out."

Ana Car, 61, didn't remember the sudden impact, only that she woke up in a dark bus filled with screams of terror and agony. The retired factory worker had spent the evening gambling and was sound asleep when the bus crashed.

"I can't believe how many died," she said, sobbing Monday as she recovered from bumps, bruises and a sore back. "It was so horrible. These images are going to stay in my head for life."

Car was sitting toward the back of the bus when it rammed the truck. She awoke to find herself standing amid bodies flung everywhere. Those who could move were pushing and shoving in the pre-dawn darkness to climb out from under each other.

She clambered to a broken window to yell for help, panicked she would be trapped if the bus caught fire. Motorists who stopped to help pulled her out.

"I couldn't stand when they got me out," Car said. "I sat on the side of the road, watching them pull so many people out. I saw so much blood and two dead bodies. I was so scared."

Vides had a valid commercial license and a clean record in recent years. The bus had passed annual inspections.

USA Holiday was licensed to travel between states, which subjected Vides to federal limits on driver work hours. Under the scenario officials described — leaving Los Angeles at 8 p.m. and returning less than 12 hours later — Vides would have been within those limits, which cap driving time to 10 hours within a 15-hour span and do not prescribe specific rest requirements.

A call to the company was not returned.

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Watson contributed from San Diego. Associated Press writers Justin Pritchard, Brian Melley, Alicia Chang and John Antczak in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Tustin and Courtney Bonnell in Phoenix contributed to this story.