The World & Nation

Angry that he could not smoke aboard a Greyhound bus headed from Los Angeles to Miami, a Phoenix man tried to overpower the driver on an Arizona highway early Sunday morning, causing the coach to tip and injure 33 people, officials said.

The disruptive but unarmed passenger, identified as Charles George, was arrested on 37 counts of aggravated assault, said Officer Steve Volden of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. About a dozen passengers were treated at several Arizona hospitals Sunday afternoon, but none of their injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Volden said.

The bus tipped about 1 a.m. Sunday as the 38 people on board were traveling from Phoenix to El Paso on Interstate 10.

George, who is about 40 years old, apparently boarded the bus in Phoenix and began smoking a cigarette in his seat as the bus drove through Casa Grande, Ariz., about 30 miles south. Two off-duty Greyhound drivers, riding along to meet up with other routes, confronted George to say smoking was not allowed, Volden said. George then walked to the front of the bus, which was traveling 70 mph, jiggled the door and turned to the coach’s driver and tried to seize the steering wheel.

As George and the unidentified driver struggled, the bus veered off the highway and then back on before tipping onto its side.

Helicopters and ambulances took the injured passengers to six Arizona hospitals, where they were treated for cuts and various neck and back injuries, Volden said. Two passengers were in critical condition Sunday, a Greyhound spokeswoman said.

George was treated for cuts on his face, Volden said. The driver was not injured.

The cross-country bus left Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon and was scheduled to arrive in Miami on Tuesday morning. Greyhound was working Sunday to get the displaced passengers on other buses to continue their travels, spokeswoman Jamille Bradfield said.

Sunday’s bus wreck was the third such incident in a month. Seven Greyhound passengers died after an Oct. 3 crash in Tennessee that was caused when a passenger slashed the driver’s neck. Concerned that other buses might be hijacked, Greyhound suspended bus service for several hours.

Two weeks later, in Utah, Greyhound passengers successfully fended off an alleged hijacker who tried to overpower the bus driver. No one was injured.

In Sunday’s incident, the off-duty drivers and possibly one or more passengers tried to restrain George, Volden said.

“These incidents, though they seem frequent because they’ve been pretty close together, they are still considered rare,” Bradfield said.