A video clip only showed a dark, lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere, but it was chilling nonetheless.
The motorcoach drifted away from the center line toward the guardrail before the video cut out. It was then that investigators said the 56-passenger bus rolled off an embankment near Mexican Hat in San Juan County last year, shearing the roof off of the vehicle and ejecting 51 of the 53 people onboard. Nine people were killed, and 43 others were injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., revisited the Jan. 6, 2008, crash on Tuesday, examining the causes and factors that led to it. Investigators blamed it on driver fatigue and excessive speed.
Contributing to the accident's severity was the lack of an adequate motorcoach occupant protection system, primarily due to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's delay in developing and promulgating standards to enhance the protection of motorcoach passengers.
The driver, who admitted he hadn't been feeling well but felt able to drive, was traveling anywhere between 88 and 92 mph on the tiny, two-lane road in Utah's Four Corners area. Investigators told the board that the driver had been diagnosed with sleep apnea and was either suffering from a cold or altitude sickness. The bus was one of 17 transporting 800 people from a ski trip in Telluride, Colo., back home to the Phoenix area.
The weather had forced the driver to take an alternate route, but he also got lost, winding up on U.S. 163. Investigators said cameras on the bus recorded a passenger shouting "slow down!" just before the bus crashed, but the driver didn't appear to react. That is consistent with fatigue, the investigator said.
"This tragic accident was entirely preventable," said acting chairman Mark Rosenker. "More importantly, it shines a spotlight on the need for all motor vehicle operators to take responsibility for their physical fitness before they get behind the wheel."
"In my judgment, he should never have been behind the wheel," added NTSB board member Kitty Higgins.
The speed of the bus clearly concerned members of the board.
"Is there ever a time when a motor coach should be going 88 miles per hour?" Rosenker asked. "I don't care if he's out on the desert flats. That is much too fast to be operating a motor coach with passengers on it."
The crash is being looked at as part of a series of NTSB recommendations on overall bus safety, including safer designs of buses and seat belts to prevent people from being ejected.
Teresa and Maurice Washington of Peoria, Ariz., who were sitting in the last row of the bus, lost their 12-year-old son in the accident. The couple were also seriously injured. "I'm still kicking myself for getting on a bus with no seat belts," said Maurice Washington, 45, who attended Tuesday's hearing with his wife.
Rosenker said it has taken too long for federal safety standards and industry groups to put seat belts in buses.
"I suggest that maybe this accident will be a call to action," Rosenker said.
Contributing: Associated Press
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com