Some crash victims better

Doctors upgraded the medical status of several Chinese tourists and some were released from an Arizona hospital on Saturday, a day after they were involved in a fatal rollover accident south of Hoover Dam.

Two people who were being treated at the Kingman Medical Center in Kingman, Ariz., were released early Saturday morning and drove to University Medical Center to visit their 8-year-old son, UMC spokesman Rick Plummer said.

The boy is in fair condition and is responsive, said John Fildes, medical director for the hospital's trauma center.

"He's pretty sore right now," Fildes said.

The father arrived at UMC on Saturday to see his family and seemed dazed, with bandages over parts of his face and hand.

He identified himself as Mr. Wu to journalists Mindy Gao of the Chinese Daily News in Los Angeles and John Guan of the Global Times, run by the People's Daily. He did not give a first name.

The journalists said Wu told them in Chinese that he was alone in the back row of the tour bus and was the only one who was able to crawl out on his own when the bus overturned.

His wife and son were a few rows in front of him.

Both journalists quoted him as saying: "We are the luckiest family" on the bus.

The boy's mother reportedly stayed by his bedside.

Investigators looking into the deadly tour bus crash on U.S. Highway 93 about 27 miles south of the Hoover Dam said Saturday that it may take up to a month to figure out why the vehicle overturned, killing seven passengers and injuring 10 others.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officer Robert Bailey said the National Transportation Safety Board was helping to investigate the cause of Friday's crash near the small town of Dolan Springs, but that his department was the lead investigating agency.

Officials were expecting to release the names and ages of the seven people who were killed, but they were still awaiting confirmation of the information from the Chinese consulate late Saturday, Bailey said.

Six people were pronounced dead at the scene and a seventh, a man in his 50s, died at UMC.

Five people, including the boy, remained at UMC on Saturday and are not likely to be released until today at the earliest, Plummer said.

The 48-year-old male bus driver was in serious condition, a 40-year-old woman and a 35-year-old woman were in critical condition, and a 61-year-old man was in fair condition.

Plummer said the victims' injuries ranged from spinal and serious head injuries to bone fractures.

John Fildes, director of UMC's trauma center, said some of the patients have been able to speak.

"They're mostly concerned with their friends and families," Fildes said. "Some of them lost friends or family members."

A man and a woman who had been taken in critical condition to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center were upgraded to serious condition on Saturday, hospital spokeswoman Stacy Acquista said.

A language barrier initially complicated efforts to treat, identify and get an accurate count on the number of people involved in the crash, officials said.

Arizona authorities initially said 16 people were on the bus, but said Saturday there were 17. It was not immediately clear who the 17th person is.

The deputy consul general for the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles visited UMC to speak with some of the survivors of the crash.

"I just want to say that the Chinese government, and also the consul general, are very concerned about all the Chinese people here," said Huang Xiaojian. She didn't comment further.

Shanghai's municipal government contacted a U.S. travel agency for help in identifying the victims, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday. It said the bus was carrying 15 people from a 20-member group.

Several translators were on hand to assist authorities in interviewing the survivors.

One, Andy Liu, the vice president of the Chinese Association of Las Vegas, said he spoke with four people who were part of the tour.

Instead of going to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon with the rest of the group, the two couples and one of their sons chose to stay behind and shop, Liu said. He said they were shaken up on Saturday over the incident.

Liu said the members of the tour group told him they were from Hangzhou and Shanghai, and that they had traveled to San Francisco and New York City before arriving in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The tour bus operator, D.W. Tour & Charter, based in San Gabriel, Calif., did not respond to calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officials said the bus left Las Vegas at 5:45 a.m. for the Grand Canyon. About 3 p.m. on the way back, it veered to the right, overcorrected, headed across the desert median and flipped, at least once, into oncoming traffic.

Review-Journal photographer K.M. Cannon and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.