'Driver error' caused Nevada crash

The bus skidded 200ft before coming to a halt

Police have blamed "driver inattention" for a crash in the Nevada desert which left more than 20 British tourists in hospital.

All 41 people on board were injured in the accident, which happened on Thursday when the bus flipped onto its side and skidded 200ft across a two-lane highway.

Some of the injured were taken to hospitals over 200 miles away

Among those still in hospital is a 72-year-old woman from Derby who had to have both arms amputated, and a 46-year-old man, also from Derby, who could still lose an arm.

They and six others are still being treated at the University of Nevada Medical Center in Las Vegas, while 14 passengers remain in a hospital in Reno.

Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Richard James said the accident happened when the bus, which was carrying 39 British tourists, a British guide and an American driver, had gone off the highway and the driver over-corrected to the left.

The vehicle crossed both lanes of traffic and then went off the left side of the road.

Mr James said: "There was no alcohol or drugs involved. We don't know as of yet if speed was a factor."

The officer said the cause of the accident - at 2230 BST on Highway 6 about 30 miles west of Tonopah - was being put down to "driver inattention".

"We're pretty much focusing on driver error," he said.

Airlifted to hospital

The tourists were on the 10th day of a 15-day holiday of a lifetime around the western US, and were on their way to the Californian ski resort of Mammoth Lakes when the crash happened.

The bus was on its way to a ski resort in California

The scene of the crash was five hours by road both from Las Vegas and Reno, and the injured were transferred to hospitals in both cities by helicopter and aeroplane.

Among those on board the bus were Audrey and Lionel Chambers from Felixstowe in Suffolk.

From his hospital bed, Mr Chambers told the BBC's Nine O'Clock News what happened.

"It started to flip over to the left and he, the driver, compensated, and it went to the right... It just slid for I don't know how long. I don't know how fast we were going, he wasn't driving recklessly, I don't think," he said.

Another passenger who escaped serious injury, John Brown from Dunfermline, said he remembered that the coach went from side to side "like a Walt Disney ride" before screeching to a halt.

Once the bus stopped, he said, people were crying.

It was something like in a carnival, a Walt Disney ride where you go up and down but you survive

Passenger John Brown

"Everybody was trying to console each other. We knew we had to get people out of the bus," he said.

Mr Brown also questioned why no passenger seat belts had been fitted to the coach.

"It limits the amount of movement that a passenger could be thrown and pushed, and that's what a seat belt does, it restrains."

The bus, chartered by UK tour operator Archers Direct, was carrying 39 passengers, a tour director and the driver.

Broken bones

A passenger interviewed by the BBC reported hearing a bang at the time of the crash, which he said could have been a burst tyre.

Passenger John Brown tells of the tourists' ordeal

Other victims of the crash were taken to Washoe Medical Center in Reno, where 14 remain in hospital.

Three of those are listed as "serious", and the other 11 as "satisfactory". Three patients have been treated and released.

The patients were all initially taken to Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah, which treated several for injuries ranging from broken bones to scratches. A woman aged 60 and a man of 64 were still hospitalised there.

Kent-based Archers Direct is still trying to contact relatives of the injured and has said no names will be released until they have all been informed.

However the firm did release a list of the areas where the injured were from. They are: Cheshire, County Durham, Derbyshire, Carmarthenshire, Fife, Lanarkshire, Lancashire, London, south Wales, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, West Midlands, West Suffolk and Yorkshire.

Archers Direct has set up an emergency helpline for relatives on 020 8313 3016.