GRAND CANYON, AZ — New surveillance video shows the moment a tour bus crashed at the Grand Canyon, killing a young woman and critically injuring eight others.
The deadly crash happened on August 1, 2023.
The videos were collected as evidence by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and show for the first time multiple angles of exactly what led up to the crash.
“It was without a doubt, I think, the worst day of all of our lives,” said Angela Tirschman, who survived the crash.
All 56 passengers, including the Tirschman family vacationing from Maryland, started their day on the Las Vegas Strip. They boarded the tour bus on their way to the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a popular tourist destination on the west rim of the canyon.
The surveillance videos show the tour bus was almost to the parking lot at the Grand Canyon when the crash happened in less than 10 seconds.
“The tour guide was speaking to us about what we were going to do when we got off of the bus and all of a sudden,” explained Angela.
The videos show the tour bus veered off the road, into a ditch, before it lost control and rolled over. The bus then slid across the pavement and slammed into several parked cars.
“Everybody was screaming,” said Kyan Tirschman, who suffered serious injuries.
For the first time, the surveillance videos also show the aftermath and how the scene turned to chaos. People ran to help and several started pulling passengers out of the bus.
“In those moments, walking around that bus crash ... it was unlike anything I think I’ve ever experienced,” Angela said.
Surveillance video shows the Tirschman family
Three minutes into the video, you can see the Tirschman family as they carried their injured 19-year-old son Kyan away from the crash scene.
“I just remember him looking at me and saying, ‘Oh my God, my leg’ and I looked at it and it was bad,” Angela said while holding back tears.
The photos of Kyan’s injuries are too graphic to print, but his skin was essentially ripped off his leg.
“They called it road rash,” Angela said.
When the camera zooms out on the surveillance video, Kyan’s family can be seen using their shirts as tourniquets.
“My husband and I think even my daughter took off their shirts and just tried to stop the bleeding,” Angela said.
Kyan was one of eight critically injured passengers airlifted to nearby hospitals.
“The skin grafts are still healing, and the nerve graft is still waiting on the regeneration,” Kyan said.
Tragically, 20-year-old Landri Burgart was killed in the crash.
“Some days are horrible. Some days we can’t get off our chair. But we go on,” said Landri’s grandmother Dorann Burgart who was also a passenger on the bus.
Records show tour bus company had numerous safety violations
ABC15 has spent months investigating the tour bus company, American Transportation Systems.
As we’ve previously reported, federal safety records show the tour bus company based in Long Beach, California, had enough safety violations to exceed federal safety thresholds, subjecting the company to possible prioritized intervention action and roadside inspection.
Before the most recent crash, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show that American Transportation’s drivers were involved in two other injury crashes in California in January 2022 and January 2023.
Investigators say safety regulations ignored
ABC15 spent nearly five months fighting to get the final crash report, a public record, from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The driver of the tour bus admitted to nodding off before the collision and investigators found the bus should have been out of service prior to the crash due to a tire “that was not within regulation,” according to the crash report.
“There needs to be accountability,” Angela said.
The DPS report also found the tour bus driver, “should not have been driving due to being over hours.”
Investigators said the tread on the right axle tire was so bad, steel was showing. The report also says the driver knew about the tire issue and failed to report it.
“The faulty equipment is the matter between life and death,” Angela said.
There is no confirmation the tire contributed to the deadly crash, but investigators concluded the tour bus and the driver should not have been on the road and both the bus company, American Transportation Systems, and the bus driver by all indications ignored safety regulations.
Families file lawsuits
The Burgart and Tirschman families have both filed lawsuits against American Transportation Systems and the bus driver, claiming negligence.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it did not issue any civil penalties against the motor carrier, but the driver was cited for fatigue driving.
The 68-year-old bus driver was arrested right after the deadly crash on suspicion of manslaughter, a class two felony, and booked into a Mohave County Detention Center. The driver was later released after the county attorney chose not to file charges.
“It could have been prevented and it wasn’t,” Kyan said.
American Transportation Systems again declined ABC15’s request for an on-camera interview and did not provide comment about the final crash report.
An attorney representing the company said the matter is in litigation and, “We respect the Court’s process, including its recent stay ruling to allow time for any additional claimants to come forward. We will continue to acknowledge and respect all injured persons and their affected family and friends as that process unfolds.”
Have a tip for the ABC15 Investigators? Email Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at jennifer.kovaleski@abc15.com.
