When journalists rushed to the scene and hospitals on the evening of June 14 to cover a car crash outside of Washington that involved Chinese tourists, they were focused on the dead and injured.

Few had time to notice the heroes at work.

The crash, between a shuttle bus carrying a group of Chinese tourists and a car, resulted in one death and two serious injuries. The injured were rushed to the three nearby Inova Virginia hospitals in Fairfax, Alexandria and Mount Vernon.

The fatality, a retired kindergarten teacher from Jiangsu province, was among the 19 people aboard the shuttle, who were mostly from China and included the victim's husband.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that after the accident occurred at around 5 pm on Tuesday on the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Stratford Lane about a mile north of Mount Vernon, the heroic actions of US military personnel and citizens at the scene probably helped save lives.

The Post described US Army Sgt 1st Class David Cooper joining a US Coast Guard officer and two others in lifting the bus.

After finding the rear door of the bus bolted and seeing the impracticality of crawling into the bus to reach the passengers, Cooper said they decided to lift the bus up back onto its wheels.

The report cited Army Sgt Gracie Vaughan as saying that she arrived at the scene the moment the bus was righted. She heard it land back on its wheels with a thud.

Asked how the four men were able to lift the bus, Cooper was at a loss, the Post reported.

"Adrenaline, grace of God, I don't know," Cooper was quoted as saying.

Vaughan, who also joined the rescue, saw the citizen rescue crew had developed into some 15 people, with some directing traffic around the scene and others using belts as tourniquets to stanch bleeding.

It all it happened in 10 minutes after the accident and before the emergency crews arrived on the scene.

"We'd like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all the American friends who stood with us and offered us help in this tragedy, including the police officers, doctors and nurses in the hospital, local government officials, as well as many ordinary people who offered their sympathy and helped voluntarily," said the Chinese embassy in Washington.

"We are deeply grateful,"

When the Post quoted US Park Police calling the passers-by efforts "heroic," Cooper and Vaughan declined to call themselves heroes.

"I just see it as doing what should be done," Vaughan told the Post.