By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Six women died on Wednesday when a tour to view fall
foliage on Mount Nebo ended in the tour bus tipping on its
side near the end of the "Loop" ride near Red Creek
Flats.
Those dead at the scene were: Jean Pell, 77; Lillian
Oblock, 77; Joyce Reese, 74; Jacqueline C. Peterson, 76;
Ramona Becker, 73. Helen McMullen, 80, died later at the
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. All are from
the Ogden-Roy area.
An additional 20 were injured, nine critically, in the
accident.
Five people were confirmed dead at the scene, said
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Sgt. David Rumfield. The highway
patrol was called to the overturned tour bus at 12:51
p.m.
The accident occurred about six miles north of State
Road 132 in Salt Creek Canyon along the Nebo Loop Road.
Sgt. David Rumfield, Utah Highway Patrol trooper said
26 members of the Ogden chapter of the Senior Friends
program, just a few of the 987 members based out of Ogden
Regional Medical Center, were headed home from the
sight-seeing tour.
"The driver said his brakes went out on winding turns
above the crash, and that he told his passengers they had no
brakes," said Sgt. Rumfield.
He said William Terry Osborne, the driver of a bus
owned by Donna's Tours and Charters of West Jordan, said he
tested the brakes on three or four turns before he lost
control and warned the 26 female passengers that the bus was
in trouble.
"He said he told the people the brakes were out," said
Rumfield. "He was in first gear, touched the brakes, the
brakes did not work. He hit the turn and the bus rolled on
its side, hit the trees and slid to where it stopped."
After the bus crashed and came to rest on its side, it
slid a short distance down the mountain.
Rumfield said if the bus had not hit the trees and
slid to a stop, it probably would have gone over the side of
the road and rolled down the hill.
"The trees stopped them from going over the
embankment. If that had happened, we would probably have had
a lot more deaths," he said.
It had been raining in the area and roads had some
moisture on them.
"The weather is not something we're looking at as a
major contributing factor," said Rumfield.
Rumfield said the bus would be inspected for signs of
loss of brake fluid or hot brakes. He said the bus had
already traveled over a number of steep and winding sections
of road when it flipped.
The injured were transported by 10 ambulances and
three helicopters from Utah, Juab and Sanpete counties. Four
of those were from Juab County, two from Sanpete County and
two from Santaquin.
First Responder units from Levan and Mona also gave
needed assistance.
All 20 of the injured were stabilized first at Central
Valley Regional Medical Center in Nephi where they were
treated and from where the most serious were transported.
Nine victims were transported by helicopter, two to Utah
Valley Regional Medical Center, two to LDS Hospital and five
to the University of Utah Medical Center.
"Any time this happens, it's overwhelming," said Mark
Stoddard, CVRMC administrator. "But I don't know if it could
have been handled any better."
The 18-bed hospital, he said, is connected to the
Nephi Medical Center and, as a result, doctors from that
facility were able to respond immediately.
Stoddard said a tour-bus accident in the 1980s, which
occurred on an icy "death strip" south of Nephi had a number
of teens who were injured and one died at the scene.
"It was nothing like this," he said.
Central Valley's chief financial officer, Brent Davis,
said the hospital emergency room staff is used to dealing
with serious trauma and car accidents from the canyon, but
he said the bus accident made for an especially busy
afternoon.
"By 2 p.m., Wednesday, we had all of our trauma rooms
full," he said. Nevertheless, by 4:30 p.m., all patients
remaining at Central Valley had been stabilized.
"Because these were all senior citizen women," said
Ann Coombs, East Juab Ambulance Association President,
"their bones were more fragile. It was a bus load of brittle
bones."
Cell phones and radios were inoperative in the canyon
region where the bus crashed, complicating the rescue
efforts.
In addition, helicopters were unable to land at the
scene and had to pick up victims at the hospital.
John Shepherd, EMT, who with his crew transported four
victims to Central Valley, said the crash scene was crowded
with people and many passengers were still on the bus when
he arrived.
Several of the passengers who died were ejected
through the passenger side windows, Rumfield said. He said
no one but the bus driver had seat belts and the driver was
not wearing his.
The driver said he was thrown out of the bus with a
loose windshield. "He said he rode it, like a surfboard, for
50 yards on the road," Rumfield said.
The Senior Friends had contracted a bus from Donna's
Tours of West Jordan for a sight-seeing tour on the scenic
by-way of 11,877-foot Mount Nebo, the highest peak on the
Wasatch Range. The bus left from Ogden at 8:30 a.m. and was
scheduled to be back by 3:30 p.m.
"We do senior trips all the time," Debbie Jones,
spokesperson for Donna's Tours, said. "This is the first
time in 25 years that we've had anything like this."
Carma Kervs, 74, Clearfield, who was hospitalized in
Central Valley Regional Medical Center with broken shoulder
bones, said she doesn't remember anything from looking at
the leaves to waking up in the hospital.
"I didn't hear him (the driver) say the brakes were
out," she said. "He might have, but I don't remember
anything like that."
It appeared that those at the back of the bus were the
least injured of the passengers. Kervs said she chose a
window seat on the driver's side so she could hear her
companions with her good ear. She now believes her bad ear
might have saved her life.
"God was looking over me," she said.
Along the tour that morning, passengers got out
several times and took pictures.
"What happened today is just sad," program coordinator
Melva Holt said Wednesday.
Rumfield said it will take some time to complete the
bus inspection. He said the bus would be inspected for signs
of loss of brake fluid or hot brakes.
Investigators are also checking on the driver's record
and the bus' history.
If any violations are found, authorities could issue a
warning, a $1,200 to $5,000 fine, or an order to stop all
operations until the problems are fixed. The Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Division gave the tour bus company a
satisfactory review during a 2000 inspection.
Donna Larsen, owner of Donna's Tours and Charters,
said this was the first accident her company has had in its
30-plus years of operation.
"I'm sorry, I don't know anything," Larsen said
Wednesday only a few hours after the accident. Beyond
stating concern for victims and their families, she declined
further comment, saying her insurance company advised her
not to discuss the accident.
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