Dozens hurt as Greyhound bus skids after attack on driver: report

[January 23, 2014]  (Reuters) — Dozens of people on board a Greyhound bus traveling to Phoenix, Arizona, were injured when a passenger attacked the driver on Thursday and tried to roll the vehicle, causing it to skid off the road, a local broadcaster reported.

Three people were airlifted to a local hospital and 23 others taken to hospitals for treatment after the accident in Tonopah, about 50 miles west of Phoenix, KTVK news reported.

The driver prevented the bus from flipping and the vehicle came to rest just off the road on the opposite side of the highway, the broadcaster reported from the site of the accident.

Spokesmen for Greyhound and the Arizona police were not immediately available for comment.

The suspect was taken into custody but was not yet identified, KTVK said.

The bus was bound for Phoenix from Los Angeles.

"He just started fighting with this girl and jumped up, opened the door and started jumping on the bus driver, and said 'I want to flip this bus,'" a passenger, Gregory Forte, told the broadcaster.

The suspect's girlfriend said he was "paranoid" and "did not want to be on the bus," KTVK reported.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum)

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