Bus crash in Utah kills eight
MEXICAN HAT, Utah (AP) - January 7, 2008 The Arrow Stage Lines bus was southbound on State Route 163 when
it failed to negotiate a curve, went off the road and rolled over
several times at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, said Trooper Cameron Roden of
the Utah Highway Patrol.
"When the vehicle was overturning, the roof of the bus split
open and multiple occupants of the vehicle were ejected," he said.
The driver suffered minor injuries, he said.
A woman who answered the phone at Arrow Stage Lines headquarters
in Omaha, Neb., early Monday said no one would be available to
answer questions until later in the morning.
Roden said the bus was en route from Telluride, Colo., to
Phoenix after a ski trip.
A manifest showed 51 passengers were on board the bus when it
crashed about 10 miles north of Mexican Hat, in the Four Corners
region where Utah meets Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Rescue
crews from all four states were sent to help.
The cause of the crash was unclear. Investigators at the scene
said the road was wet from light rain.
The region's isolation and the winter weather slowed aid efforts
Sunday. A helicopter from Colorado could not take off because of
winter storms. Cell phone service was not available in the area,
Roden said.
Twenty of the injured were taken to San Juan Hospital in
Monticello, 80 miles north, said hospital chief executive Craig
Preston. Ten to 13 still were being evaluated while others with
more serious injuries were sent elsewhere.
"We had some pretty severe stuff," Preston said.
Another bus was sent to pick up passengers who weren't badly
injured.
Elsewhere, two people were killed Monday morning in a car that
collided with a school bus near Bartow, Fla., the Polk County
sheriff's office said. None of the 11 students on the bus or their
driver were injured. Deputies said the car veered into the path of
the bus.
In Mapleton, Maine, a school bus went out of control at a sharp
turn, clipped a utility poll and landed on its side, sending a
dozen people to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries
Monday morning, police said.