Britons injured in U.S. bus crash

TONOPAH, Nevada -- All 39 British tourists on board a tour bus were injured when it crashed while en route to a ski resort in Nevada, apparently after the driver lost control.

One woman was in a serious condition having had both her arms almost severed and a man had one arm badly injured when the skin was torn off in the accident after the bus skidded 91 meters along the highway.

Blood-spattered paperback books, drink cartons and papers were strewn along the road beside the yellow coach which lay on its side.

The crash occurred 21 miles (34 km) west of the town of Tonopah as the bus headed to the ski resort of Mammoth, Nevada Highway Patrolman Richard James said.

Dr. Vincent Scoccia, spokesman for the Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah, some 245 miles (394 km) northwest of Las Vegas, said all of the tourists were middle-aged or elderly, ranging from 50 to 72. Most were from England but some were from Scotland and Wales.

The driver of the tour bus, operated by California Sun Line based in Chatsworth, California, apparently lost control of the vehicle which slid on its side across both lanes of a highway before coming to rest, a highway patrol spokesman said.

He said the driver was also injured but released after treatment at a hospital. The tour director, also a U.S. citizen was hospitalized as well.

Rick Plummer, a spokesman for the University Medical Centre in Nevada said at least 36 of the passengers were taken to eight different Nevada hospitals.

Some spouses were separated and sent to different hospitals depending on the severity of their injuries and authorities were working to reunite them, Plummer said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, he added.

Names of the patients have yet to be released, he said. Nine of the most seriously hurt were flown to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Plummer said.

Two of the passengers -- a 72-year-old woman and 46-year-old male, both from Derby, England -- were in critical condition and were undergoing surgery early Friday morning.

The woman suffered partial amputation of both her arms below the elbows while the man had the flesh stripped away from his left forearm, Plummer added.

Other patients included a 56-year-old male from England and a husband and wife from Wales.

A doctor at the Nye Regional Medical Centre said six of the victims were being treated there. He said others with minor injuries were spending the night at Station House hotel in Tonopah.

Fifteen of the victims were brought to Washoe medical centre in Reno, Nevada and three of them were in critical or serious condition, spokeswoman Kathy Moore said. She said most of the patients were over 60 years old.

The holidaymakers had been on a U.S. tour with Archers Direct, a U.K.-based company.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "Our immediate concern is for the welfare of our customers and their relatives. We are actively seeking to contact all relatives in the UK and where necessary arranging for them to fly out to the U.S."

Executives from the company immediately left for the U.S. to work with local authorities to determine the cause of the accident.

The travelers were on a Western Wonders USA Tour which left the U.K. on August 29 flying into San Francisco. They had been on the 10th day of a 15-day tour and had already visited Los Angeles, Palm Springs, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

They had been due to visit Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite National Park, and San Francisco before returning home on the morning of September 13.

A spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents told CNN.com: "It is obviously a tragic incident but it appears to be a one-off but if investigations show that the accident has wider implications then we will be investigating."

Reuters contributed to this report.

After three bus crashes, calls come for tighter safety rules
December 29, 1998

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