Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Bus heading to Grand Canyon from Las Vegas rolls over; 1 dead, dozens hurt

Mohave

Mohave County Sheriff's Office via AP

This photo shows a Las Vegas-based tour that rolled over in northwestern Arizona on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. One person died and two were critically injured. The cause of the rollover is under investigation.

A Las Vegas-based tour bus heading to the Grand Canyon Friday afternoon crashed in Arizona, killing one passenger and injuring dozens more, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.

Two other passengers suffered life-threatening injuries, while 40 more were hospitalized with minor injuries, the sheriff’s office wrote on its Facebook page. 

The bus, which was northbound on Diamond Bar Road toward Grand Canyon West, rolled over in Dolan Springs, about 80 miles away from Las Vegas, officials said.

Grand Canyon West, which is outside the boundaries of the national park, is a tourist destination that sits on the Hualapai reservation and is best known for the Skywalk, a glass bridge that juts out 70 feet from the canyon walls and gives visitors a view of the Colorado River 4,000 feet below.

The cause of the wreck was not yet known, said Anita Mortensen, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. It wasn't clear if any other vehicle was involved. A photo from the sheriff's office showed the bus on its side on a curving road, with no snow or rain in the remote area.

Emergency dispatchers began receiving calls about 12:20 p.m. from people reporting that a bus had crashed and was resting on its side, officials said.

There were 48 people on the bus, officials said. The fatal victim died at the scene, while most of the injured were taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center, officials said.

Before the pandemic, about 1 million people a year visited Grand Canyon West, mostly through tours booked out of Las Vegas. The Hualapai reservation includes 108 miles of the Grand Canyon’s western rim. In addition to the Skywalk, it has helicopter tours, horseback rides and a one-day whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado River.

The area near the crash is a popular endpoint for Colorado River rafting trips through the Grand Canyon.

It's also near where four Chinese nationals died in 2016 when their van collided with a Dallas Cowboys staff bus headed to a preseason promotional stop in Las Vegas.

In 2009, a tour bus carrying Chinese nationals overturned on U.S. 93 near the Hoover Dam, killing several people and injuring others. The group was returning from a trip to Grand Canyon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.