4 Still Hospitalized, 36 Stranded After Vegas Bus Accident

Four Southern California residents remained hospitalized here Sunday after the gambling tour bus in which they were passengers flipped on its side on a drizzle-dampened highway just west of the Las Vegas strip.

And 36 other passengers, several of whom suffered broken or separated limbs, were temporarily stranded when the tour operator, Scorpio Tours of Los Angeles, was unable to immediately arrange to transport them back to Los Angeles.

Esperanza Villa Vicencio, 40, of Oxnard was listed in stable condition at Valley Hospital Medical Center with a broken pelvis. Maura Benitez, 27, of Los Angeles was listed in stable condition at Community Hospital with back injuries. And an Oxnard couple, Santiago and Maria Guadalupe Vega, returned Sunday afternoon to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada for further treatment of shoulder and neck injuries.

Authorities said the tour bus, northbound on Interstate 15, apparently skidded at 4:10 p.m. Saturday when a car cut in front of it and bus driver Jose Luis Figueroa, 48, of Los Angeles attempted to swerve out of the way.

A car and a semi-truck were also involved in the chain reaction accident, which is still under investigation.

“There were people flying everywhere,” said Ralph Villa Vicencio, husband of Esperanza. “I grabbed my wife by her head so she wouldn’t hit the window and I crashed against the window and gashed my elbow.”

On Sunday morning, passengers who had paid anywhere from $10 to $45 for the overnight trip gathered in the lobby and casino of the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino, awaiting passage home.

Tour operator Angelina Perez, who suffered back and leg injuries in the accident, said Scorpio Tours, in business seven months, had only the single bus. Efforts to rent a Greyhound bus that her husband, Figueroa, could drive back to Los Angeles proved unsuccessful because she had no credit card to pay the $1,150 fee, she said.

Injured passengers reacted with frustration over the delay, which finally ended late in the afternoon when Perez hired a bus from another firm, agreeing to pay cash for it when it returns to Los Angeles.

“They have a business and no credit card? I don’t believe it,” said Frances Cabrera, 42, of Oxnard, a quality-control officer for a foundry. “They are driving a bus; they should be ready for an emergency like this.”