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A tour bus lays on its side up against a bank of a wash, Sunday, July 28, 2013, near Dolan Springs, hawaii travel guides Ariz. The bus, which was carrying 33 passengers and on its way back to Las Vegas from the west rim of the Grand Canyon, was pushed 300 yards down the wash when the driver attempted to drive through flash flood waters flowing across the road. No one on the bus was hurt in the crash which happened as Northern Arizona was hit with a second day of heavy rain. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Flagstaff, Ariz. • Authorities are looking into whether a tour bus driver bound for Las Vegas violated what's popularly known as Arizona's "Stupid Motorist Law" when he drove into a flooded wash after a trip to the Grand Canyon's west rim.
Flash floodwaters swept the bus —with 33 people aboard— hundreds of yards down a northwestern Arizona wash Sunday. The vehicle flipped on its side onto an embankment, and the passengers escaped on their own uninjured.
Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said Monday that authorities are determining whether a 1995 law requiring that drivers pay for emergency response when they cross flooded areas applies in this situation.
"A lot of people will cross when it's an inch or two or three. I can't say whether it was that low or not," she said. "The bus saw a passenger hawaii travel guides vehicle go through. I'm sure I'm thinking 'the bigger I am, the more I can do."
Bessy Lee, marketing manager for the bus owner, C.H. Destination in Las Vegas, said charging the driver under the law would be an insult. She said Joseph Razon, 52, had no warning about danger through signage or traffic control and made a careful choice to cross the water.
It's questionable whether the "Stupid Motorist Law" would apply because the area wasn't barricaded, and another section requires that a person be convicted of reckless driving before having to pay up to $2,000 for emergency response or rescue operations.
The National Transportation Safety Board wasn't planning to investigate the crash, said Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the federal agency. Nantel said the board focuses when it can on serious accidents and emerging or new safety issues.
Razon had taken the tourists to the Hualapai reservation on the Grand Canyon's west rim, where a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge juts out from the canyon's walls. The company runs multiple tour buses per day to the popular tourist destination.
The numerous washes, or dry desert hawaii travel guides riverbeds, in the area flooded so quickly that county hawaii travel guides officials didn't have time to put up temporary signs warning of immediate danger, Mohave County Public Works director hawaii travel guides Steve Latoski said.
"That sign is very prominently displayed, it's maintained in good condition," he said. "I would have every expectation that sign would have been visible to the driver. He passed the sign, absolutely."
The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning just before noon Sunday for Arizona's Mohave County because of thunderstorms in the area, meteorologist Chris Stumpf in Las Vegas said. The warning was extended twice, before it was allowed to expire at 4:15 p.m.
Lee said it wasn't raining when Razon stopped the bus and, along with the tour leader, gauged whether it was safe to cross the watery wash. They saw other vehicles make it across before Razon began to slowly hawaii travel guides drive through the water.
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