3 tour bus passengers still hospitalized in Las Vegas

Richard Brian

Zhu Cheng Rong, left, assistant chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, with her translator Bian Fan, address the media Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Henderson.

By Mary Manning (contact)

Published Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 | 4:24 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 | 7:12 p.m.

Richard Brian

Wang Xinping, Deputy Consul General of The People's Republic of China in San Francisco, speaks during a media briefing Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn.

A Los Angeles attorney who is representing the passengers and families of 17 people involved in a tour bus crash said he is concentrating on sorting out both legal and financial issues for the Chinese tourists.

Attorney James Vititoe of the firm Masry & Vititoe said he is representing the passengers and their families in legal issues that involve two countries and two states, and addressing mounting health care bills.

One of the 10 Chinese bus passengers who survived a tour bus crash on Jan. 30 is still in critical condition and two others remain hospitalized, all in Las Vegas.

Families of the seven people who died in the crash and the surviving passengers hired the Los Angeles law firm, said Zhu Cheng Rong, assistant chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration. The announcement was made during a media briefing Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Henderson.

When asked if the families planned legal action against the bus company, DW Tour & Charter of San Gabriel, Calif., Rong said China and the United States handle bus crashes "in a different way." While family members all had different ideas, they agreed to hire the law firm, she said.

"We don't know what the case will be at this time," Rong said.

Multiple federal and state investigations are underway into the crash that threw 15 of the 17 passengers out the windows of the bus as it returned to Las Vegas from a day trip to the Grand Canyon's West Rim. The National Transportation Safety Board said it could be a year before a final report is completed.

Four of the 17 people on board the bus have recovered, Rong said. Two are staying in local homes. An 8-year-old boy and his parents have returned to China.

The seven people who died in the crash have not been returned to China. The Chinese government has asked International SOS, which provides medical assistance and security services all over the world, to assist in returning the bodies to China. A spokeswoman for International SOS said the agency sent an incident management team to Nevada with medical doctors and senior operations and logistical experts from the United States and China.

Rong said preliminary estimates of medical expenses for the injured tourists could be as high as $2 million. She said the law firm was handling all settlement issues. Rong said she was a member of a working group formed by the tourism administration, the People's Republic of China and aided by American agencies.

The Chinese people and government thanked state and federal agencies, doctors, nurses and translators for "swift, orderly and effective" assistance, said Wang Xinping, deputy consul general of the Chinese consulate's office in San Francisco. He said a team of Chinese representatives had traveled from the Los Angeles consulate's office the night of the crash to Las Vegas.

For one passenger, 18-year-old Sally Xie, a woman passing by the crash site Jan. 30 where the bus had rolled over about 27 miles south of Hoover Dam was her personal savior.

Xie sent a message to Gretchen Glade, who stayed with the young woman while her arm was pinned under the bus after it landed on its right side across the southbound lanes of U.S. 93. Glade gave Xie a Teddy bear, which has been with her at the hospital and now while she is in a Las Vegas rehabilitation center.

Xie asked that the media send Glade a "thank you" message, because Xie had been unable to thank her in person. Xie was taken to surgery at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and did not see the woman after that.