A tourist bus headed for the Grand Canyon has overturned in Arizona leaving one person dead and two critically injured, authorities have said.
The bus was pictured flipped on its side in Mohave County, northwestern Arizona at around midday on Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.
There were 48 people on board, including the driver, with one person pronounced dead, two flown to the Kingman Regional Medical Center by helicopter and the other 45 taken to the same hospital for minor injuries.
It is not clear if any other vehicles were involved and the cause of the crash is still unknown.
The vehicle had come from Las Vegas and was heading to Grand Canyon West – a two-and-a-half hour drive away – located outside the national park.
The tourist hotspot sits on the Hualapai reservation and is best known for the Skywalk glass bridge that gives visitors impressive views of the Colorado River 4,000ft below.
Four Chinese tourists died there in 2016 after their van collided with the Dallas Cowboys football team’s staff bus that was on a pre-season trip to Las Vegas.
Seven years earlier in 2009, another six Chinese nationals and a tour guide were killed when their bus overturned near the Hoover Dam on the way back from the Grand Canyon.
A federal investigation suspected the driver was not paying attention.
Coronavirus cases are currently surging in Arizona, but there is no stay-at-home order in place.
The state has recorded more than 700,000 cases and 12,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.