ABOUT THE PASS Kenosha Pass is not one of Colorado's more difficult passes, said Dan Hopkins, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. "It is certainly not like a Loveland or a Berthoud pass," aid Hopkins. "Loveland and Berthoud have a lot of winding switchbacks. That's not typical on Kenosha." He described U.S. 285 over 10,000-foot Kenosha as "fairly straight, and the grade is not as steep (as Loveland or Berthoud)."

A 17-year-old boy was in critical condition with internal injuries and an 18-year-old male was in serious condition with severe head injuries at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, a hospital spokeswoman said. Four other passengers were reported in serious condition at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver.

Some of the passengers "were bad. They were borderline," said Jefferson-Como firefighter Matt Anderson, one of the first at the crash scene in Park County.

The bus driver, Gregg David Wright, 45, of Minnesota City was arrested late Saturday on suspicion of 46 counts of careless driving. He was taken to the Park County Jail.

The bus is owned by the Minnesota City Bus Co. Peggy Twait, wife of the company's owner, said Saturday night that Wright had driven in the Colorado mountains "a few times" in recent years. A year ago, he had brought the same group of passengers to Colorado, and they specifically asked for him this year, she said. Wright has been with the company 31/2 years.

The bus fishtailed and then rolled onto its side about 4 p.m. on the rain-slickened, 10,000-foot mountain pass about 60 miles southwest of Denver, authorities said. A 3-mile stretch of U.S. 285 was closed for several hours. One lane was opened as of late Saturday, and the State Patrol was alternating traffic, officials said.

Witnesses described the bus as going too fast for conditions, said State Patrol Sgt. Martin Petrik. The State Patrol estimated the bus was traveling at 60 to 65 mph in a 50-mph zone.

"I saw a lot of people, a lot of bodies, a lot of chaos," Anderson said.

The bus tires may have snagged on metal debris on the road, according to Petrik.

 

Authorities look over wreckage of the tour bus.

"I heard a lot of screaming," said Tyler Haschig, 17, of Minneapolis, a member of the Young Life Christian group who walked off an ambulance at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver with his arm in a sling.

Haschig said he was asleep when the accident occurred. "I was one of the lucky ones," he said.

Officials were at the scene of the crash within minutes, and other travelers stopped to help. Some of those who helped included doctors, nurses and a psychiatrist, according to the first rescuers there.

They went to work immediately with four passengers who had been ejected from the bus, including some who were thrown through windows as far as 50 feet. One traveler who helped was identified by the State Patrol as Dr. William Schuh of Wheat Ridge.

Bus lying on its side

"The worst were the people who were ejected," Anderson said. "But when I got there, the doctors were already working on those people. They had already started helping."

The bus was lying on its right side, Elk Creek Fire Chief Bill Dolan said after delivering a victim to St. Anthony early Saturday evening.

 

The wreckage of the Minnesota charter bus lies on the side of U.S. 285 on Kenosha Pass. The bus appeared to have rolled onto its side, slid on the shoulder and crashed into a line of aspen trees.

The passengers' injuries ranged from life-threatening to those hurt but able to walk, Dolan said.

"The ones we had weren't seat-belted, so they were ejected into the road," Dolan said. "They came out the window. The patient we had said she was asleep and woke up in the grass."

That patient, a 15-year-old girl, was receiving stitches for an 8-inch scalp cut at the hospital late Saturday.

The bus appeared to have rolled onto its side, slid on the road's gravel shoulder and crashed into a line of aspen trees.

"It could have been worse," Petrik said. "The bus could have gone off the road."

Petrik said the bus was carrying students from Burnsville and Apple Valley high schools in the Minneapolis suburbs to the Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista. The ranch is operated by Young Life, a Christian youth organization with chapters at schools across the country and national headquarters in Colorado Springs.

The Minnesota campers were going to raft on the Arkansas River today and camp tonight, said Ed Jackson, who is vice president of Young Life in Colorado Springs.

The Young Life emergency response team will provide counseling and help to the uninjured, he said.

 

One of the bus-crash victims gives the "thumbs-up' sign Saturday evening as he's wheeled into the St. Anthony trauma center. Five of `the 45 Minnesota teens and adults on board were seriously injured Saturday when their chartered bus overturned on Kenosha Pass.

"Our response is to do whatever the needs of the kids are," he said. "And that includes prayer."

Roughly 5,000 people each summer stay at the bucolic camp nestled in the Collegiate Peaks near Salida.

In addition to St. Anthony and Swedish, bus passengers were treated at Penrose and Memorial hospitals in Colorado Springs and at Denver Health Medical Center. Rescue workers from at least eight local fire and rescue squads responded to the accident, and five helicopters helped transport the injured.

"I think the accident could have been a lot worse than it actually was," said Kathy Reasoner, an emergency medical technician with Platte Canyon Rescue Service. "There's just no way of knowing why. Sometimes they're very, very severe, sometimes they're not; there's no explanation for it."

Staff writers Allison Sherry, John Ingold, Karen Rouse, Howard Pankratz, Sheba R. Wheeler and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.