MEXICAN HAT, Utah -- All nine passengers were identified as Arizonans aboard a charter bus that plunged off a damp, twisting highway in southeastern Utah and landed 41 feet below with its roof sheered off, authorities said Monday night.
Three of those killed Sunday night were students at Deer Valley High School in Glendale, a district spokeswoman said Monday.
IMAGES: 9 Arizonans Dead, 20+ Injured In Bus Crash The victims were identified as Erica Sheffey, 16, a junior; Marc Rasmussen, 18, a senior, and Jasmine Bowden, 16, authorities said.
Spokeswoman Sandi Hicks said the school found out about their deaths after receiving a call from one's mother and the other's aunt.
The other victims were identified Monday night as:
Jeffrey Rivera, 32, of GilbertJoseph Debolske, 18, of ScottsdaleJames J. Baumer, 41, of PhoenixReese Washington, 12, of Arizona (no town given)Pam Humphreys, 67, of TucsonCarolyn Bowden, 60's, of PhoenixAbout 20 other people from the Phoenix area were injured, some critically, authorities and hospital officials said.
Rasmussen was on the ski trip with his teenage sister, his kindergarten-aged brother and his parents, authorities said. Hicks said the four family members were taken to hospitals.
Hicks said it was unclear if Sheffey was traveling with family members.
Grief counselors were at Deer Valley High School on Monday, she said.
"Because of the number of students involved, this will have a profound impact," Hicks said. "Our focus is getting these kids in the right place emotionally before continuing on with academic goals."
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden said the bus failed to negotiate a curve, went off the road and rolled over several times Sunday evening.
Tamri Valls, a sales representative at Corporate Transportation, a subsidiary of Norfolk, Neb.-based Arrow Stage Line, said it was her company's bus that crashed.
She said the trip of skiers left Phoenix on Thursday but did not have details about their group.
Joe Debolske, one of the 18-year-old victims, was a senior at Saguaro High School. After graduating, Debolske had hoped to go to college in Colorado, a relative said.
Rich Cralley, a 33-year-old Phoenix resident, said he and his wife were on the same ski trip as the crash victims, but went home in a different bus and didn't learn of the crash until Monday morning.
"We knew the road conditions were bad. We were all nervous heading into it," he said. "I'm totally shocked by what happened and I'm glad that we made it. You feel sorry for those who didn't."
The scene was a mess of barbed wire, steel posts, luggage and ski equipment. The roof of the bus split open, tires were stripped off the vehicle and some people were pinned under the wreck, said Hook, who was among the first at the scene.
"The roof of the bus was on the ground," said Jim Hook, the fire chief in Bluff. "There were people scattered 100 yards from where the bus went off the road."
The driver suffered minor injuries, he said.
The bus, which was carrying 51 people, 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 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 down the 41-foot slope, said Trooper Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol.
Although the road was described as wet from light rain, weather was not the "main factor," Roden said. "The main thing we're looking at is the driver failed to negotiate the turn."
The highway is known as a challenge for drivers.
"It's just a narrow road. No shoulders, sharp curves," said Hook, who was among the first at the scene. "Truckers and buses know that. You don't go in there at night."
Hook said passengers were a mix of families, people in their 20s, and children ages 5 and 6.
An Arrow Stage executive, Bruce Neuharth, was traveling to the crash site Monday from Omaha, Neb., headquarters. Arrow Stage Lines is is a division of Norfolk, Neb.-based Busco Inc.
"All I can say at this point is that we are continuing our investigation in full cooperation with law enforcement officials," Kimball Kinnersley, safety director for Arrow Stage.
Arrow has had seven bus crashes in the past two years, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database. Four of those accidents involved injuries. No other details were available from the online database.
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.
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