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1 person dies, 8 others are seriously hurt in tour bus rollover at Grand Canyon West

The Associated Press

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. — One person was killed in a tour bus rollover involving over 50 people Tuesday in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon West Skywalk, authorities said.

The bus rolled over just before 10 a.m. Tuesday at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, according to the tribal police department.

Grand Canyon West is run by the tribe but has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

The rollover involved 57 people; one person died and eight others were flown to hospitals. An undisclosed number of others with less critical injuries were driven for treatment, tribal emergency officials said in a statement.

The name of the person who died and details on the injured were not immediately released.

A private tour operator and a visitor's personal vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot, tribal officials confirmed. They declined further comment, citing their ongoing investigation.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted tribal police with the crash.

Grand Canyon West is in northern Mohave County at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

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1 dead, others hurt after tour bus rolls on its way to Grand Canyon

One person is dead and others were seriously injured after a tour bus headed to the Grand Canyon crashed in Arizona on Friday, the sheriff's office said.

The tour bus, which was managed by a Las Vegas company, was carrying 48 people, including the driver, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.

It rolled and landed on its side around 12:20 p.m. on Diamond Bar Road on its way toward the Grand Canyon National Park, the officials said.

One person was killed, two others were in critical condition and seven others were also taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, the sheriff's office said.

Thirty-three other people on the bus had minor injuries.

The name of the tour bus company, and where exactly it departed from were not released in the sheriff's statement. The accident is under investigation, it said.

Photos of the scene showed the bus on its side. Some on social media described helping pull people out of the bus.

The Red Cross of Arizona tweeted that it was monitoring the situation. The agency provides shelter and other assistance to those in need following accidents and disasters.

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Grand Canyon West is about a 126-mile drive from downtown Las Vegas. It's on the Hualapai Reservation west of Grand Canyon National Park and has attractions like the Skywalk, which extends about 70 feet over the canyon's rim.

The Hualapai Tribe said in a statement that it and its business, the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation, is "deeply saddened" by the deadly accident.

"As a people, our hearts go out to those so deeply affected," the tribe said. "We wish speedy recoveries to those requiring medical attention."

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

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Arizona tour bus collision at Grand Canyon West kills 1, 50 injured

A total of 57 people were involved in the crash at grand canyon west.

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One person was killed and more than 50 others injured in a rollover involving a tour bus Tuesday in northern Arizona , authorities said.

The Hualapai Nation Police Department confirmed that the bus rolled over at approximately 10 a.m. on Tuesday, August 1 at Grand Canyon West in the Hualapai Reservation. Grand Canyon West is run by the Hualapai tribe but has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

One person died after a tour bus and a vehicle collided in a parking lot in Grand Canyon West on August 1. (Grand Canyon West sign)

SOUTH CAROLINA SHERIFF'S OFFICE HELICOPTER CRASHES NEAR CHARLESTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLIGHTS GROUNDED

Local Las Vegas station KTNV reported that a private tour with 57 people and another vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot. 

One person died when the tour bus rolled over. Authorities have no shared details about the person who died during the incident. 

A monsoonal rainstorm brings temporary relief to Lake Mead and the western Grand Canyon area as drought continues to worsen. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Eight other individuals were air lifted to a local hospital. Details about the other injuries were not immediately released. 

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The Arizona Department of Public Safety, which is also investigating the crash , did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. 

She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten .

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One dead and 56 injured after rollover tour bus crash near Grand Canyon

The cause of the accident is under investigation by the hualapai nation police, article bookmarked.

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One person was killed and 56 others injured after a tour bus rolled over at the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

The accident occurred on Tuesday morning in Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Reservation, an area that includes the West Rim of the Grand Canyon and the Skywalk, an observation deck that protrudes into the canyon, some 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above the canyon floor.

A spokesperson for the tour company said the bus had collided with a visitor’s car by the parking lot.

Hualapai Emergency Services, GCW Air Rescue Fire, Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire Department, Northern Arizona Consolidated Fire Department, AMR ambulances, Bullhead Fire Department, and five medical flight agencies responded to the scene at around 9.50am.

The Hualapai tribe’s emergency operations said in a statement eight people who were injured “were flown to surrounding hospitals while the rest who sustained noncritical injuries were taken by ground transportation.”

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According to the statement, the cause of the accident is under investigation by the Hualapai Nation Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

It added: “The incident is ongoing and no further information is available at this time.”

According to the Grand Canyon West website the area “is a tribal enterprise of the sovereign Indian Nation of the Hualapai Tribe,” and upon visiting “you are entering the Hualapai Reservation where you can experience their heritage and rich traditions.”

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1 person dies, 8 others are seriously hurt in tour bus rollover at Grand Canyon West

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. — One person was killed in a tour bus rollover involving over 50 people Tuesday in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon West Skywalk, authorities said.

The bus rolled over just before 10 a.m. Tuesday at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, according to the tribal police department.

Grand Canyon West is run by the tribe but has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

The rollover involved 57 people; one person died and eight others were flown to hospitals. An undisclosed number of others with less critical injuries were driven for treatment, tribal emergency officials said in a statement.

The name of the person who died and details on the injured were not immediately released.

A private tour operator and a visitor's personal vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot, tribal officials confirmed. They declined further comment, citing their ongoing investigation.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted tribal police with the crash.

Grand Canyon West is in northern Mohave County at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

1 dead, 8 others seriously hurt in tour bus rollover at Grand Canyon West

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. (AP) - One person was killed in a tour bus rollover involving over 50 people Tuesday in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon West Skywalk, authorities said.

The bus rolled over just before 10 a.m. Tuesday at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, according to the tribal police department.

Grand Canyon West is run by the tribe but has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

The rollover involved 57 people; one person died and eight others were flown to hospitals. An undisclosed number of others with less critical injuries were driven for treatment, tribal emergency officials said in a statement.

The name of the person who died and details on the injured were not immediately released.

A private tour operator and a visitor’s personal vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot, tribal officials confirmed. They declined further comment, citing their ongoing investigation.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted tribal police with the crash.

Grand Canyon West is in northern Mohave County at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Records: Speed likely factor in fatal Arizona tour bus crash

A tour bus on its way to the Grand Canyon was speeding when it flipped on its side, killing one passenger while injuring dozens, according to an investigative report that stops short of drawing conclusions about the cause of the crash.

Four dozen people from across the country were on the bus operated by Las Vegas-based Comedy On Deck Tours when it veered into a dirt embankment, over ruts and rocks, and hit Joshua trees on Jan. 22. At one point, it rode the face of a small hill and was airborne before coming back on to the road and flipping on its side, according to records.

The passengers suffered injuries ranging from abrasions and ankle sprains to fractures, blunt force trauma and broken ribs. Shelley Ann Voges from Booneville, Indiana, was partially ejected and died. Her husband and son, who recently had moved west, also were on the trip.

The bus was heading to Grand Canyon West, about 2.5 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 70 feet (21 meters) from the canyon walls and gives visitors a view of the Colorado River 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) below.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office released the crash report, body camera footage, photographs and 911 call recordings to The Associated Press in response to a public records request. The office didn’t respond to additional questions about the report Wednesday.

Passengers told authorities that it appeared the driver possibly had fallen asleep and was driving too fast. The records also call into question whether the automatic engine brake was engaged as the bus traveled on a curve and slightly downhill.

Mohave County sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Coffin noted speed limits of 45 mph posted along the road. The driver, Gary Griep, told authorities he was going no more than 40 mph, but the records say the GPS on the bus put the speed at 62 mph.

Griep said the engine brake, which helps slow and control the bus, was engaged, but two other bus drivers who were on tours in the area that day and stopped at the crash site said that didn’t appear to be true.

The crash report also said there were no visible marks on the tires or in the embankment to indicate heavy braking or steering for at least 700 feet (213 meters). Only when the bus hit a raised embankment did it veer from its path, the report said.

The investigation has not been turned over to prosecutors, said Cara Engstom of the Mohave County Attorney’s Office. The sheriff’s office is awaiting the results of a toxicology test on Griep and an autopsy report on Voges.

Passengers who had to crawl out of a rooftop hatch, the back door or large windows said they thought Griep might have fallen asleep. Griep told authorities he got at least eight hours of sleep the night before, doesn’t drink alcohol and wasn’t under the influence of any drugs. He said he sometimes coughed so hard his head hung low but he always kept his eyes on the road.

He attributed the crash to gusty winds that the National Weather Service said were 13 to 19 mph at the time.

Griep picked up passengers at hotels along the Las Vegas Strip that morning, took them to breakfast and the Hoover Dam and then headed toward the Grand Canyon Skywalk. As he came around a corner, he said the wind pushed the rear of the bus off the shoulder and into the embankment.

“Once it was in, I was fighting to get it back out, but once I did, it rolled over,” he said.

He told authorities he knew the road well and had made the trip hundreds of times. In his 20 years of driving buses, he said he never had another accident. He hung up abruptly Wednesday when reached by the AP.

Voges husband, Hubert, told authorities that passengers were tossed around the bus in the moments before it flipped, struggling to hold on, and screamed and cried. He said the trip was on the “bucket list” for his family, and he and Shelley Voges planned to return home the following day. He declined Wednesday to say more by phone.

Friends have said Shelley Voges, 53, was a sweet and compassionate woman.

Sheriff’s officials noted that all of the seat belts were in the locked position and didn’t appear to be worn. The driver was wearing a seat belt.

Two lawsuits have been filed against Comedy On Deck Tours over the fatal crash.

Four surviving passengers allege negligence on the part of the tour bus operator and Griep. The company has denied the allegations, according to court records, and didn’t return a call Wednesday from the AP.

Justin Zarcone, a Las Vegas attorney who represents the tour bus company in one of the lawsuits, declined comment Wednesday.

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One killed, 56 injured as bus rolls over near Grand Canyon

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Wrong-way driver dies after crashing into tour bus, officials say

PEORIA, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) – A wrong-way driver is dead after their vehicle crashed into a tour bus in a head-on collision.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the crash was reported shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday morning on the northbound lanes of Loop 101 in Peoria, Arizona.

Officials said the crash was a head-on collision involving a Chevy Silverado and a band tour bus hauling a trailer.

KPHO reports the bus was carrying a band called Piano Men: Generations, which performs in Billy Joel and Elton John tribute concerts.

Authorities said the wrong-way driver had serious injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.

Two people from the bus were also taken to the hospital with moderate and minor injuries.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fatal crash involving Valley Metro bus closes Loop 202 in Tempe for several hours

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TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — The driver of a truck has died after crashing into a metro bus on a East Valley freeway overnight.

It happened on the Red Mountain Loop 202 west of Scottsdale Road. Arizona DPS said a blue pickup truck struck the back of a disabled metro bus at freeway speed.

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More than 20 hurt in tour bus crash in rural Arizona

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YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — A tour bus flipped onto its side Thursday while on an agricultural sightseeing trip near the Arizona-Mexico border, injuring more than 20 people.

Yuma County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Alfonso Zavala said the bus had been on a dirt road near a field and tipped over while attempting to turn on an embankment.

It was carrying 52 people.

Two of the injured were flown to Phoenix-area hospitals from the crash site, Zavala said. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

The others who were hurt were taken to a hospital in the nearby border town of Yuma, about 150 miles east of San Diego. Yuma Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Jenn Lotz said the facility saw 24 people between the ages of 27 and 82. She said one was transferred to a Phoenix trauma center, 16 were discharged and seven were admitted to the hospital.

The hospital said most of the patients suffered minor injuries, but no other details on their conditions were released.

It’s too early to say what caused the morning crash, Zavala said, but it appears the bus’s back tires went into soft, sandy soil on the embankment. The bus had been on a dirt field-access road and was trying to reach another road alongside a canal.

The sheriff’s department is investigating.

Agriculture tours are quite common in Yuma, known as the “lettuce capital of the world.”

The group was on a Field to Feast agriculture tour organized by the Yuma Visitors Bureau. The agency said in a statement it was “extremely sorry that this accident occurred.”

The tourism office conducts the tours between January and March to showcase local produce. Tours include a narrated motor coach ride through farm fields, along with lunch made from locally grown food.

The bus crash occurred as the group was viewing a field of cabbage and celery crops, Zavala said.

Uninjured passengers were taken back to their cars at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park, according to the Visitors Bureau.

The bus is operated by Phoenix-based Tour West America. A woman who answered the phone at the company’s Yuma tour office said officials were still trying to gather information.

According to its website, Tour West America provides charter service and tours via motor coach in metropolitan Phoenix, Yuma and surrounding lower Colorado River cities. The company also offers vacation and cruise packages.

Tour West America originated in Yuma in 1986.

Before you book: how to check tour bus safety ratings

ABC15’s Investigation into a deadly tour bus crash at the Grand Canyon last summer has raised questions about the safety of tour buses, including how to check the safety of your bus company.

Before booking a bus trip, you should check the federal database for violations and the bus company’s safety rating. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration tracks safety ratings for every charter bus service in the country.

“When people and families book excursions you hope and pray that the people making sure that things are safe do their jobs,” said Angela Tirschman, one the passengers on the deadly tour bus crash. “They didn't hold up their end of the bargain.”

The Grand Canyon tour bus driver admitted to nodding off before the collision, and investigators found the bus should have been out of service prior to the crash due to a tire “that was not within regulation,” according to a newly released law enforcement report into the August 1, 2023, rollover crash.

ABC15 is committed to finding the answers you need and holding those accountable.

Submit your news tip to [email protected]

20-year-old Landri Burgart was killed in the crash, and eight other people were seriously injured including Angela’s son Kyan.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety final crash report also found the tour bus driver, “should not have been driving due to being over hours.”

Federal safety records also showed the tour bus company involved in the deadly crash, American Transportation Systems, based in Long Beach, California, had enough safety violations to exceed federal safety thresholds subjecting the company to possible prioritized intervention action and roadside inspection.

“It makes me question signing up to do things like that again, which is really sad,” Angela said.

Experts also recommend asking lots of questions before buying a ticket on a tour bus and start by asking the name of the company operating the tour bus. Then ask for their DOT number. You can use that information to search the federal website and find the company’s safety information, including a breakdown of violations and ratings by category.

There are other things riders can look for before boarding a bus. Look at the tires for any obvious signs of wear or concern. Also, check exit doors to make sure they open and don’t be afraid to ask how many hours the driver has been behind the wheel or to see their commercial driver’s license.

American Transportation Systems previously declined ABC15’s request for an on-camera interview and did not provide comment about the final crash report.

An attorney representing the company said the matter is in litigation and, “we respect those that were injured and the family and friends that have been affected.”

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