Dallas Cowboys Bus On Way To California Involved In Fatal Crash
PHOENIX (AP) - A van collided with a bus carrying Dallas Cowboys staffers but no players on an Arizona highway, leaving four dead in the van, authorities said.
The bus occupants emerged uninjured from Sunday's crash, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Quentin Mehr said.
"All on the bus came through OK with some bumps and bruises," Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said in an email.
Dalrymple said the bus was only carrying members of the franchise's staff but would not say how many. There were no players on board.
Footage following the crash shows the two vehicles in a field on the side of the road - the bus seemingly intact and sitting upright while the van appearing demolished and reduced to wreckage.
Mickey Spagnola, a columnist for the team's website, has been writing for the past week about traveling on a Cowboys bus with a driver, the team mascot and videographer. On his Twitter page, Spagnola tweeted before 2 p.m. that the bus was 80 miles outside of Vegas.
The two vehicles collided in the afternoon on U.S. 93, about 30 miles north of the city of Kingman or 180 miles northeast of Phoenix, according to DPS.
The crash shut down at least one lane of the highway that serves as the main route between Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The bus was on its way to a Dallas Cowboys fan event in Las Vegas. Charles Cooper, manager of GameWorks entertainment center in Vegas, said the session with 50 to 75 fans was scheduled for 3 p.m. PDT. People were already waiting when the president of a Las Vegas Cowboys fan club called to relay news of the accident. The event was subsequently canceled. Cooper says the team mascot was supposed to appear.
After the Las Vegas stop, the bus was scheduled to go on to Oxnard, California for the team's training camp. Members of the organization typically take a bus two weeks before the camp starts and make stops along the way.
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Associated Press sportswriters Schuyler Dixon and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
