A tour bus carrying vacationers from China crashed and flipped onto its side in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park in an accident that sent 24 people to hospitals, most of whom were treated and released, a park official said on Friday.
Two of the 27 passengers were airlifted to a regional medical center in neighboring Idaho after Thursday's accident and were listed in fair condition on Friday, said Grand Teton spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs.
The accident on a busy highway in the middle of the park blocked the only route connecting Grand Teton, in northwest Wyoming, to the nearby Yellowstone National Park, temporarily stranding hundreds of travelers at the height of tourist season, Skaggs said.
Preliminary reports from Grand Teton rangers show the bus, operated by Roaming America Travel of Utah, flipped and skidded on its side down the paved roadway after the driver veered onto the shoulder and then over-corrected, she said.
The bus had been traveling to Yellowstone when the crash happened on a straightaway with a 45 mile-per-hour (72 km-per-hour) limit. The speed of the vehicle, and what made it leave the road, were not immediately clear, Skaggs added.
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The passengers were Chinese nationals, according to the company.
Yan Zhang, manager of Roaming America Travel, said on Friday the firm was awaiting results of an investigation of the accident by authorities.
"We do not yet know what caused it," she said.
The injured were transported to hospitals by ambulance, helicopter and a passenger van loaned by a guest lodge in Grand Teton park.
Nineteen people were treated and released while five remained hospitalized overnight for injuries that were not considered life-threatening, Skaggs said.
"It was a mass casualty incident that could have been so much worse," she said.
Millions of visitors are drawn each summer to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks, attracted by their iconic Western landscape of towering peaks, mountain lakes and forests, and wildlife such as grizzly bears and bison.
