Nevada coach crash blamed on 'driver error'

Driver error has been blamed for Thursday's coach crash in Nevada in the western United States, in which 41 British tourists were injured, some of them seriously.

Driver error has been blamed for Thursday's coach crash in Nevada in the western United States, in which 41 British tourists were injured, some of them seriously.

Trooper Richard James of the Nevada Highway Patrol, said yesterday that an investigation was continuing, but that drugs, alcohol and excessive speed, have been ruled out. "We're pretty much focusing on driver error," he said.

A woman from Derby, aged 72, had parts of both arms amputated following the crash. Several passengers had broken bones and cuts and grazes to their arms and legs.

Yesterday, three of the injured remained in a serious condition in hospital in Reno. A further 11 were described as "satisfactory". In Las Vegas, where other accident victims were sent, two were said to be a serious condition and six others were described as "fair".

The driver, Lotfali Rankouh, 54, of Los Angeles, suffered minor injuries.

None of the coach passengers was wearing a seat belt. In spite of a series of recommendations from safety agencies, Nevada, like most states in the US, does not make it mandatory for buses to fit seating restraints.

Paul Dimond, the British consul-general, who visited the patients in Las Vegas this weekend, said that he was "shocked and saddened" by what had happened.

The British passengers, mostly English but including several Welsh and Scots, had flown from London to San Francisco, where they began the bus leg of the tour. They were on route to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. On Thursday, they were going north towards Mammoth Lakes, California, when the bus suddenly came off the US6, a two-lane road in remote central Nevada.

According to reports, the driver overcorrected to the left, causing the coach to veer across both lanes before leaving the carriageway altogether. The driver allegedly overcorrected again, and the bus overturned and slid about 200 feet on its side. According to Trooper James, "people were flopping around all over each other inside the bus. No one was ejected, but all the windows on one side were smashed".

One passenger, John Brown, of Dunfermline, making his first trip to the US, said that he and his wife had been sitting on the right side in the back of the bus. "The window was on the ground and passengers were being dragged along the side, which resulted in horrific injuries.

"I never thought I was really going to be injured. At that point, it was something like a Walt Disney ride where you go up and down but survive."

The bus was registered to California Sun Lines, of Chatsworth, California. The firm's spokesman said Mr Rankouh had "a perfect record".