PHOENIX (AP) – On Friday, a Las Vegas-based tourist bus bound for the Grand Canyon crashed in northwest Arizona and killed one person and critically injured two others, authorities said. .
The cause of the accident around noon on Friday was not yet known, said Anita Mortensen, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. It was unclear if there were any other vehicles involved. A photo of the sheriff’s office showed the bus next to him on a curved road, with no snow or rain in the remote area.
There were 48 people on the bus, including the driver, authorities said. After the crash, 45 people were sent to Kingman Regional Medical Center, including two medical helicopter flights, spokeswoman Teri Williams said. All others were treated for minor injuries, he said.
Mortensen said two people were seriously injured.
The bus was heading to the Grand Canyon West, about 2 and a half hours from Las Vegas and outside the boundaries of the national park. The tourist destination is on the Hualapai Reservation and is best known for the Skywalk, a glass bridge that juts out 21 meters from the canyon walls and offers visitors a view of the Colorado River at 1,219 meters below.
Before the pandemic, about a million people a year visited the Grand Canyon West, mostly through booked tours outside of Las Vegas. The Hualapai Reserve includes 174 kilometers of the western edge of the Grand Canyon. In addition to the Skywalk, it features helicopter excursions, horseback riding and a day trip with whitewater rafting on the Colorado River.
The area near the crash is a popular endpoint for Colorado River rafting trips down the Grand Canyon.
It’s also close to where four Chinese citizens died in 2016 when their van collided with a Dallas Cowboys staff bus heading to a preseason promotional stop in Las Vegas.
In 2009, a tourist bus carrying Chinese citizens overturned in the U.S. 93 near the Hoover Dam, killing several people and injuring others. The group was returning from a trip to the Grand Canyon.
John MacDonald, a spokesman for the Hualapai tribe, did not immediately have any additional information about Friday’s shipwreck. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said he did not immediately have further details about the crash or about NTSB involvement.
A Grand Canyon West spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking more information.
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Fonseca reported from Flagstaff. Associated Press journalists Ken Ritter and Michelle L. Price collaborated in Las Vegas, Terry Tang in Phoenix, and AP / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, a member of the Sam Metz Corps in Carson City, Nevada.