Flood Sweeps Tour Bus 300 Yards Off-Course

Flash flood waters swept a tour bus with 33 people aboard hundreds of yards down a wash in northwestern Arizona. The vehicle flipped on its side, but, amazingly, no one was injured, say officials. The Las Vegas-bound bus was returning yesterday afternoon from a day-trip to the Grand Canyon's west rim when the driver attempted to cross the wash on a rural road. The high waters pushed the vehicle down the wash for an estimated 300 yards.

The crash happened as northern Arizona was hit with a second day of heavy rain. The area received 0.75 inches of rain in about an hour yesterday afternoon, a National Weather Service forecaster says. A flash flood warning was in effect when the accident occurred. The operations manager for the bus company says the driver saw the car in front of him cross the flooded stretch of highway, and "he thought, if a car can go through it, I can go through it. Then he got slammed by a rushing current of water that came out of nowhere." She says the driver managed to bring the bus against an embankment so it would stop and passengers could escape out of the driver's side windows. (More Arizona stories.)