Some tourists hurt in bus crash headed home

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2000 | 10 a.m.

Three patients who have been hospitalized at Washoe Medical Center in Reno and two patients from University Medical Center in Las Vegas were scheduled to leave Las Vegas with their families on a private plane Friday evening, said Phillip Gordon, director of U.S. operations for Archers Direct.

Archers Direct, the British company that sponsored the tour, chartered the plane.

Several doctors and nurses were also traveling with the patients, Gordon said. Some of the victims will have to continue treatment at hospitals in England, but were well enough to go home.

Gordon said the company would not release the patients' names.

Federal safety investigators are investigating the Sept. 7 crash that injured all 41 onboard when the bus drifted off the road and the driver overcorrected near Tonopah. The bus flipped on its side and skidded 200 feet.

The crash has been blamed on driver inattention.

The tourists were nearing the end of a 15-day jaunt, visiting sites in California, Utah and Nevada. They left Las Vegas and were en route to Mammoth Lakes, Calif., when the crash occurred.

Several of the most seriously injured in the crash remain hospitalized in Reno and Las Vegas.