Fatal tour bus crash on US 93 by Hoover Dam kills 7, injures 9
09:43 PM Mountain Standard Time on Friday, January 30, 2009
DPS / azfamily.com
VIDEO: Investigation continues
http://www.azfamily.com/video/3tvextra-index.html?nvid=327355
VIDEO: Road closure expected for hours
http://www.azfamily.com/video/3tvextra-index.html?nvid=327326
PHOTOS: Bus crash scene
http://www.azfamily.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=14347&location=www.azfamily.com
RAW: Aerials
http://www.azfamily.com/video/3tvextra-index.html?nvid=327273
VIDEO: DPS reveals details
http://www.azfamily.com/video/localnews-index.html?nvid=327240
The following is a press release from the Department of Public Safety:
Officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety are investigating a roll-over crash of a tour bus on US 93 south of the Hoover Dam where seven bus passengers have died and nine others have been injured including the driver, with five of those being life threatening for a total of 16 occupants.
Initial reports of total occupants were conflicted due to a language barrier. The cause of this roll-over crash will not be known for several days.
US 93 is a four lane divided highway in the area of this incident with the roadway being straight and terrain relatively flat.
On 01/30/2009 at about 4:06 p.m. Mountain Standard Time zone, Highway Patrol Officer’s from the Arizona Department of Public Safety responded to a tour bus roll-over on US 93 at milepost 28.1.
Officers were able to determine the Bus was traveling northbound on US 93 when, for and unknown reason it traveled off the right side of the road, overcorrected, then traveled through the center median, and rolled-over onto the southbound lanes of US 93.
The Bus appears to have rolled over at least one time with several of the passengers ejected from the bus.
Six passengers died on scene and one died at University Medical Center (UMC) in Las Vegas, Nev. The driver is among the injured and is currently listed in serious condition
Several medical helicopters responded to this incident including our own DPS Ranger Air Rescue Helicopter stationed out of Kingman, Ariz.
Some of the helicopters had to take more than one trip in order to air lift patients from the scene.
Five patients were transported to UMC and five others were transported to Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC), Kingman Ariz.
Ground ambulance was also utilized to transport less critical patients.
Many area Police, Fire and Emergency Medical agencies from both Arizona and Nevada responded to this bus roll-over incident. The Nevada DPS Highway Patrol is also assisting us by providing translation services.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/homepagetopstory/stories/arizona-local-news-013009-tour-bus-crash.2ee9d05.html
At least 7 die as bus overturns near Hoover Dam
(CNN) — A bus carrying Chinese tourists overturned Friday near Hoover Dam, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 15, an Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman said.
Authorities work on the crash scene Friday on U.S. 93 in White Hills, Arizona, near Hoover Dam.
The accident happened at 4 p.m. on U.S. 93 at mile marker 27, about 27 miles south of Hoover Dam, said Lt. James Warriner.
The dead lay in body bags on the roadway near the bus, which was on its side across both lanes and onto the shoulder of the highway.
Initial reports from the scene indicated rescuers had difficulty communicating with the passengers, all of them Chinese nationals.
Five of the injured were taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center, where one was in critical condition and four were in serious condition, said Ryan Kennedy, executive director of operations.
Rick Plummer, a spokesman for University Medical Center in Las Vegas, said the hospital received five victims by helicopter, one who died, two in critical condition and two in serious condition. Watch authorities work the crash scene ?
The north-south highway at the crash scene in White Hills, Arizona, was shut in both directions. Officials said the bus was heading from Las Vegas to Arizona. Hoover Dam is near the border of the two states.
Among the injured was a motorcyclist who was hurt avoiding the bus, said National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz.
map of the crash site
http://us.cnn.com/2009/US/01/30/arizona.bus.crash/index.html?iref=topnews
Investigators probe fatal Arizona tour bus crash
Associated Press – January 31, 2009 1:53 PM ET
DOLAN SPRINGS, Ariz. (AP) – A team of federal investigators is headed to the scene of a tour bus accident that killed seven people in northwestern Arizona.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the six-member team plans to search the bus for clues and help public safety inspectors already at the site determine what happened. They are due to arrive later today.
The bus was carrying a group of Chinese tourists when it overturned yesterday afternoon near Hoover Dam. Several people were thrown from the bus and seven were killed. The bus driver was among 10 others injured. Two remain in critical condition.
Authorities say the bus had been traveling north on the two-lane U.S. highway 93 from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas when it crashed. Police have not described the road and weather conditions at the time.
http://www.kfor.com/global/story.asp?s=9765606
Fatal Tour Bus Accident on US-93
Updated: Jan 31, 2009 12:23 AM EST
Seven people have been killed and nine more injured after a tour bus crashed on US-93 near Dolan Springs, Arizona. The accident happened just after 3 p.m. Friday. The bus was full of Chinese tourists and headed back to Las Vegas from the Grand Canyon.
The accident closed US-93 in both directions as emergency workers cleared the dead, the wounded, and the wreckage off the highway. At last word, authorities do not know why the driver lost control. A team of investigators from Phoenix are headed to the scene to determine exactly what went wrong.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety says the motor coach was northbound on US-93 when the driver veered off to the right and overcorrected. The bus traveled across the median, into the opposite lane of traffic and flipped on its side. Six passengers died on the scene and another passed away at UMC in Las Vegas.
Medical helicopters began arriving at UMC Trauma within minutes of each other. Accident victims, many with visible facial cuts and bruises, were brought in to the waiting hospital staff. Four people, including the driver, are being treated at UMC and five more are hospitalized 40 miles away in Kingman, Arizona.
Arizona DPS says some helicopters had to take more than one trip in order to air lift all the patients from the scene.
One of the first witnesses on the scene was Sheila Larsen. She works just a few feet away at the world famous Rosie’s Den in the community of Whitehills. She heard the accident and rushed over to help as many people as she could, “I just heard a big crash and it was very loud, like a bomb or something. After that, I just heard screaming — blood-curling screaming.”
The southbound lanes US-93 are now being diverted to the northbound lanes as investigators examine the wreckage.
The tour bus was owned by DW Tour and Charter, based in San Gabriel, California, east of Los Angeles. The company’s owner, Agnes Wang, said they rented the bus to another company for a weekend trip.
A search of the federal department of transportation database turned up a clean record on DW Tour and Charter. However, California records show the company did have some administrative violations back in October of 2008, but there were no safety violations related to the company.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=9763706&nav=168Y
The bus crashed between Dolan Springs, Arizona and Kingman, Arizona.
Accident victims, many with visible facial cuts and bruises, were brought in to the waiting hospital staff.
Six people, including the driver, are being treated at UMC.
The medical helicopters began arriving at UMC Trauma within minutes of each other.
The bus belongs to DW Tours out of Southern California.
Video: Fatal Tour Bus Crash
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2009/jan/31/1556/
By Evelio Contreras
Sat, Jan 31, 2009 (12:07 a.m.)
Police said at least seven people died Friday after a tour bus crashed about 27 miles south of the Hoover Dam.
Bus crash kills 7 tourists south of Hoover Dam
8 victims airlifted to two Las Vegas hospitals; 5 battling life-threatening injuries
Officials confer at the scene of a fatal tour bus accident Friday on U.S. 93 near Dolan Springs, Ariz. Police said at least seven people died. The bus, carrying a Chinese tour group, was northbound toward Las Vegas before the crash.
By Mary Manning, Jeff O’Brien, Cassie Tomlin
Published Fri, Jan 30, 2009 (3:56 p.m.)
Seven Chinese tourists died and another nine were injured after a tour bus traveling to Las Vegas crashed Friday afternoon south of the Hoover Dam in Arizona.
Six people died at the scene, although the death toll climbed after one person died Friday evening at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The tour bus overturned at about 3:04 p.m. Las Vegas time on U.S. 93 north of Dolan Springs, Ariz., on a four-lane divided highway about 27 miles south of the Hoover Dam. The bus, a 2007 Chevrolet Starcraft, was from San Gabriel, Calif.,-based DW Tour & Charter.
The bus overturned and came to rest on its right side, said Lt. James Warriner of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The bus was coming from the west rim of the Grand Canyon.
Police cars from the Arizona Highway Patrol, the National Park Service and Golden Valley Fire Department were at the scene, and bodies were laid on the ground covered in tarps Friday evening. The tour bus was lying on its side with the front of the bus ripped off.
Five patients were transported by air ambulance to the Las Vegas trauma center at University Medical Center. An 8-year-old boy was taken to UMC’s Pediatric Emergency Room in serious condition, UMC spokesman Rick Plummer said.
Plummer said one person, a man in his 40s, died at the hospital about 5:30 p.m. Friday. The other victims taken to UMC included a 61-year-old man in critical condition, a 48-year-old man in critical condition, a 35-year-old woman in serious condition and another woman whose condition wasn’t available.
An 18-year-old woman and a man in his 50s initially taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center in Arizona were airlifted Friday night to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. Both were in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Three other patients were taken to Kingman Regional, where they remained Friday night. A total of five people at UMC and Kingman Regional have life-threatening injuries, Warriner said.
Several helicopters arrived at UMC Friday evening, with two of the helicopters landing in a nearby parking lot, where patients were transferred to ground ambulances then to the trauma unit.
Dean Nyhart, commander for the northern division of the Arizona Highway Patrol, said investigators will fingerprint the crash victims and compare physical features with photographs found in passports.
UMC brought in Chinese interpreters from Tzu-chi Foundation of Las Vegas to talk to the patients. Interpol also was helping with translations.
Arizona authorities initially had reported that 22 passengers were on the bus, but later said the number was 16. Officials said the confusion was created by language barriers and patients who were taken from the scene for hospital treatment.
Sgt. Tom Eaves, of the Arizona Highway Patrol, said the bus had capacity for 30 passengers and those on board were Chinese tourists.
Eaves said the bus was headed north and began to veer, then flipped over when it hit the dirt median. Some of the passengers were ejected.
Betty Wang, a volunteer Chinese translator who was summoned to the hospital to help communicate with the injured passengers, said the driver of the bus is one of the injured who was transported to UMC.
She said his body was covered in gauze and he had suffered severe facial injuries. Wang said the man couldn’t speak and could only communicate by nodding his head.
He was asked if he was the driver of the bus after a commercial drivers license was found in his wallet, she said. Wang said she tried to ask him what caused the crash, but he couldn’t respond. He indicated that his wife and a 19-year-old son or daughter also was aboard the bus.
At least three other passengers on the bus were transported to UMC. Another translator, Emily Chu, said she talked to a 47-year-old woman who was on the bus with her husband, father and uncle. They all are from Shanghai, China.
The woman had broken ribs and no feeling in her legs, Chu said. She also suffered cuts on her legs and scratches on her face, she said.
The tourists came from Shanghai to San Francisco, where they caught the tour bus, and were en route to Las Vegas from the Grand Canyon. Speed does not appear to be a factor, Warriner said.
Because of a language barrier at the scene, it was difficult to get more details from passengers about what happened, Eaves said. The highway patrol’s Phoenix-based vehicular crime unit was en route to the scene to continue the investigation because of the number of fatalities involved, said Marty Harnisch, of the Arizona Highway Patrol.
Harnisch said investigators will map the scene and do a thorough inspection of the vehicle to determine whether there was criminal negligence.
The bus company, DW Tour & Charter of San Gabriel, Calif., was licensed by the California Public Utilities Commission on July 8, 2008. The company was cited on Oct. 27, 2008, but the details of the citation weren’t available.
Eaves said a motorcyclist avoided the crash but spun out of control and possibly broke his leg.
Along that stretch of U.S. 93, near Rosie’s Den, there is a lot of weekend commuter traffic between Las Vegas and Phoenix, so it has a fair share of crashes, Eaves said.
Bus travel to and from Las Vegas accounts for about 8 percent of the 40 million visitors arriving in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
About 56,000 to 60,000 buses bring tourists to Las Vegas each year.
A Greyhound Lines Inc. crash in July 2001, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas injured 36 passengers and the driver, who died later. Passengers reported that driver Jerry Davis had been visibly exhausted and had stopped twice to refresh himself with fresh air and coffee.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/30/fatalities-reported-after-tour-bus-overturns-hoove/
Investigators probe fatal Arizona tour bus crash
January 31, 2009 1:45 PM
from Eyewitness News Online
DOLAN SPRINGS, Ariz.
A team of federal investigators is headed to the scene of a tour bus accident that killed seven people in northwestern Arizona.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the six-member team plans to search the bus for clues and help public safety inspectors already at the site determine what happened. They are due to arrive later today.
The bus was carrying a group of Chinese tourists when it overturned yesterday afternoon near Hoover Dam. Several people were thrown from the bus and seven were killed. The bus driver was among 10 others injured. Two remain in critical condition.
Authorities say the bus had been traveling north on the two-lane U.S. highway 93 from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas when it crashed. Police have not described the road and weather conditions at the time.
http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/nnews/news2.shtml
Tour bus crashes near Hoover Dam; 6 dead, DPS says
from The Associated Press and our sister station WJLA-TV
posted 10:03 pm ET Fri January 30, 2009 – PHOENIX
The Arizona Department of Public Safety says a tour bus overturned on a highway near the Hoover Dam, killing at least six passengers and injuring at least 16. A DPS news release says the crash occurred about 4 p.m. Friday in northwestern Arizona. DPS spokesman Lt. James Warriner says officers on the scene have confirmed six fatalities. He says officials do not know what caused the bus to overturn.
Warriner says the people on the bus were Chinese tourists. It is not yet clear where the bus was headed.
The crash closed down U.S. 93 in both directions. The highway is the main route between Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The crash site is about 190 miles northwest of Phoenix.
http://www.wjla.com/news/aploader.html?js=wciv&id=590531
Bus Crash Victims Land In Vegas
Rollover Kills 7, Injures 17, Park Officials Say
POSTED: 3:50 pm PST January 30, 2009
UPDATED: 6:14 pm PST January 30, 2009
DOLAN SPRINGS, Ariz. — The victims from an Arizona bus rollover have arrived at Las Vegas hospitals as officials confirm that seven people have been killed.
Arizona State Police received the call about the incident at mile marker 27 on Interstate 93 just after 3 p.m. Friday.
Six helicopters and four ambulances were requested to treat the 17 injured, with all of victims being routed to University Medical Center, Arizona police said.
The bus was headed to Las Vegas from the sky walk at the Grand Canyon when the wreck occured.
According to an employee at Rosie’s Den — a restaurant near the crash scene — there were people trapped under the 24- to 28-foot bus.
Six people died. Authorities are still trying to determine what caused the wreck.
Four of the helicopters being sent to Las Vegas have landed at UMC. Hospital officials have confirmed that they have four victims and that one of them has died.
FOX5 has a crew en route. Watch FOX5 News at 10 and 11 and stay with fox5vegas.com for continual coverage of this story.
http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/18607733/detail.html?iref=topnews#
