PHOENIX -- Investigators have found a data recorder and video equipment inside the mangled wreckage of a tour bus that crashed Sunday night in Utah, killing nine Arizonans.
The devices may help determine why the bus -- returning to Phoenix from a ski trip to Telluride, Colo. -- left the road and rolled down an embankment.
Investigators are looking at driver error and speed as possible causes of the crash. The bus driver, 71-year-old Welland Lotan, said he was "just doing the speed limit" of 65 mph when he failed to negotiate a turn that led to the crash, an Utah investigator said. Lotan has not been cited, pending the outcome of the investigation.
A Utah Highway Patrol sergeant said "weather absolutely was not a factor."
Eight of the people killed in the accident were from the Phoenix area, including four high school students and a 7th-grader. The ninth victim was from Tucson. Some 20 other people were hurt.
Victims Mourned By Families, FriendsWhen Celia Edwards' son didn't call her the morning he was due in from a ski trip, she thought he was sleeping in.
But when she heard about a bus crash in Utah that killed nine people, her heart sank. She got the call that afternoon.
"He asked if I'm Celia Edwards and if I had a son named Jeff, and I just lost it. I said, 'No, no!'" Edwards said Tuesday from her Phoenix home.
Her son, 32-year-old Jeff Rivera of Gilbert, was killed instantly after the bus he was on with 51 other people ran off a wet road in southeastern Utah and rolled 41 feet down an embankment Sunday evening.
Eight other people, all from Arizona, were killed in the crash.
Edwards said her son worked for an information-technology company in Phoenix. His nickname was El Jefe (HEFF'-eh), or "The Boss" in Spanish, and Edwards described him as a rebel and "a pistol."
Richard Scarborough, who was in the bus crash, was one of about 10 friends including Rivera who were on the ski trip together. He said he was watching a movie on his laptop when he felt the bus skid off a curve and roll over. Then he heard the windows explode.
"I could hardly move in the pitch darkness. I just couldn't focus on where people were at," said Scarborough, 45, an information-technology manager from Phoenix. "I took a best guess and moved toward my first friend and put my hands on his neck looking for a pulse."
Scarborough had found Rivera, and his friend was dead. Scarborough crawled a few feet and, by the light of a cell phone, found the son of another friend face down in the mud. Joseph Debolske, an 18-year-old hockey player from Scottsdale, also was dead.
Debolske's aunt said the family would miss his laughter and his smile. She said her nephew had planned to attend college in Colorado.
Among the other young people who died in the wreck were three students from Deer Valley High School in Glendale. Marc Rasmussen was an 18-year-old on the wrestling team, Jasmine "Jazz" Bowden was a 16-year-old basketball player and drum major, and Erica Sheffey was a 16-year-old cheerleader.
Sheffey's next-door neighbor, Karen Caballero, answered a phone call to the teen's home and said the girl was very accomplished for her age.
"It's such a tragedy that her potential will never be realized," she said. "This is just a terrible blow."
Vicki Jones, Sheffey's cheer coach and Spanish teacher, said the teen was self-disciplined and dedicated.
"She never would give up when times were tough in practice, she never complained," Jones said. "She always gave her all in every way. She was truly an inspiration to the team and the coaches, and to everybody that knew her."
A memorial with teddy bears, flowers and balloons for the three Deer Valley students was growing at the school Tuesday.
Another victim in the bus crash was 41-year-old James "Jay" Baumer of Phoenix. His friend, Tina Lowe, said Baumer was certified in scuba diving and traveled to the Cayman Islands, Fiji and Mexico to practice his passion.
She said her favorite memory of Baumer is his smile.
"He was always happy to see you, no matter what the circumstances were," she said. "I don't think he ever had a bad day."
Attempts to reach friends and family of the other victims were unsuccessful. They were identified as Pam Humphreys, a 67-year-old from Tucson, and Carolyn Bowden, who was in her 60s and lived in Phoenix.
The youngest victim of the bus crash was 12-year-old Reese Washington, a 7th grader at Coyote Hills Elementary School. Teachers at the school declined to comment, but friends and family wrote about the boy in an online guest book.
One group of friends wrote that they will always remember Reese as a funny and happy kid.
"We would like to say how much Reese meant to us, and we will miss him, and his memories will be with us forever," wrote the friends, who signed their names as Autumn, Victoria, Laura, Silvana, Kellie and Carolyn.
The friends wrote how Reese recently made an inspirational video that was about how he would take care of his mother in the future. "Now," the girls wrote, "he can watch over her in heaven."
ELSEWHERE ON KPHO.COM: An infant ejected from her father's rolling car survived a night in near-freezing temperatures before authorities found the wreck and her pinned-in father Tuesday morning, officials said. CLICK HERE for details.MORE SLIDESHOWS: From the bizarre to the tragic to late-breaking news, visit the KPHO.com slideshow section and click away! CLICK HERE for images. Copyright 2008 by KPHO.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
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1/10/08 - Tour Organizer Reacts
