Victims' identities released in fatal bus crash in Four Corners area

Poor weather conditions may have forced a bus that rolled several times near Mexican Hat, San Juan County, killing nine people and injuring 20 others, to detour from its normal route.

Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Ted Tingey said Corporate Transportation 'N Tours was investigating whether one of its buses taking a group of skiers from Telluride, Colo., to Phoenix was forced to take U.S. 163 Sunday night because of road closures, bad weather, or if the bus was on its intended route.

The bus rolled 10 miles north of Mexican Hat Sunday night.

"It looks like the bus failed to negotiate a turn," Roden said Monday. "It rolled several times."

Pictures of the crash provided by the UHP showed the bus' roof was sheared off and debris scattered all around it. The 51 passengers inside the bus were tossed around and many were ejected, Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden said.

The number of people killed rose to nine Monday when a woman taken to Saint Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo. died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.

Monday night, the names of the victims who died, all of them Arizona residents, were released. The youngest victim was a 12-year-old girl while the oldest was 67.

The dead were identified as:

• Jeffrey Rivera, 32, Gilbert

• Joseph Debolske, 18, Scottsdale

• Marc Rasmussen, 18, Glendale

• James J. Baumer, 41, Phoenix

• Erica Sheffey, 16, Glendale

• Reese Washington, 12, Arizona

• Pam Humphreys, 67, Tucson

• Carolyn Bowden, in her 60s, Phoenix

• Jasmine Bowden, 16, Glendale

Many of the victims were teenagers from Arizona high schools, including Sheffey, a junior at Deer Valley High School, and Rasmussen, a senior at the school.

"I am so sorry to have to convey to you that at this time two of our students perished on the horrific bus crash in the Four Corners area," Deer Valley principal Barbara Dobbs said in a letter posted on the school's website Monday night. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families."

Dobbs said grief counseling would be provided to students at the school who need it.