Tour bus crash killed Indiana mom visiting son in Las Vegas

Shelley Voges posted photos of homemade pierogies on her Facebook page on Jan. 20, documenting a visit to her son’s apartment in Las Vegas.

She and her husband, Hubert, were visiting from Boonville, Indiana, and her son, Justin Morris, requested the meal while she was there.

“Love making my kiddos happy,” Voges wrote in the post. “Las Vegas is awesome.”

Two days later, the trio was on a Grand Canyon tour bus that rolled over about 70 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Voges, 53, was killed.

Morris notified friends and family of the loss in a Facebook post on Monday.

“We lost Mom in a bus accident on our way to the Grand Canyon,” Morris wrote. “Hubert and I were lucky to walk away with physical injuries that will heal.”

Morris and Hubert Voges were two of 43 bus passengers injured in the crash. Three people were hospitalized with critical injuries, while 40 others were treated and released, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials are still investigating why the tour bus, managed by Las Vegas-based Comedy On Deck Tours, rolled over.

Lawsuit filed

Two passengers, Eddie Blocker and Sandra McDougal, sued Comedy On Deck Tours on Thursday, accusing it of negligent hiring.

The suit claims that the driver of the bus, who is not identified in the complaint, “was inexperienced, incompetent, and/or unfit to drive to drive” the tour bus, which was “a substantial factor in causing injury and damages” to the passengers. The suit holds the driver, the company and other employees liable.

According to the suit, the driver was speeding, causing the bus to roll onto its side.

Comedy On Deck Tours, which advertises “fun and memorable tours to the Grand Canyon and especially Hoover Dam” hosted by professional comedians, declined to comment. According to the website, the company is booking tours.

“Most accidents happen due to distracted drivers,” the website reads. “Our drivers are hired to focus on the road. We have step-on guides to interact with tourists and answer questions. That way our designated drivers focus on the road.”

Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show that over the course of four inspections of the company’s two vehicles and five drivers, Comedy On Deck Tours has had one vehicle maintenance violation. One of the company’s vehicles was found to have “No/Discharged/Unsecured Fire Extinguisher” in a roadside inspection on Nov. 21. According to the FMCSA records, the company had no other recorded crashes since Jan. 26, 2019.

‘Lived a life of mission’

Chip Jahn, a pastor at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, said he was Voges’ pastor when her children, now in their 20s, were kids. Jahn said Voges was active in the church and was always volunteering her time to help people.

Jahn said Voges loved to cook and often used her culinary passion to give back to her community.

“She had a lot of interest in cooking, so she would work at her church every Thursday and make a meal,” Jahn said, adding that for the past few years Voges attended Dale Presbyterian Church in Dale, Indiana.

Photos on the church’s website show Voges and a handful of others serving food for the church’s Community Table that they host every Thursday night to give free meals to 30 to 80 people, the website said.

According to a GoFundMe campaign set up on Tuesday by a friend, Voges was “one of the sweetest, caring, and compassionate women I have ever met” who dedicated her life to helping others. Organizer Tamara Recob described Voges as a woman with a big heart and an infectious laugh.

“She lived a life of mission nurturing those around her,” the post said. “Most recently she became the Director of the Warrick County Christian Resource Center … helping those in need with housing, food, and resources to improve their own state of being.”

Recob wrote in the post that proceeds from the campaign will go to the family to cover Voges’ memorial service and that any leftover money “will be used to set up a memorial fund so Shelley’s desire to help those in need continues.” The campaign had raised $1,600 by Thursday night.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.