Charter Bus Overturns, Injuring 35
FAIRPLAY, Colo. — A charter bus from Minnesota carrying about 45 teens and adults overturned near the summit of a mountain pass Saturday afternoon, injuring about 35 people.
At least 12 people were taken to hospitals, authorities said. A 17-year-old boy was reported in critical condition and three other people suffered serious injuries. The bus driver was among the moderately injured.
The bus overturned about 4 p.m. on 10,000-foot Kenosha Pass, about 45 miles southwest of Denver. The crash shut down a three-mile stretch of U.S. 285, state police said.
The bus was carrying high school students from Burnsville, Minn., to a ranch in Buena Vista operated by Young Life, a Christian youth organization in Colorado Springs, said Robert Leyba, a spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol.
Debris on the road may have sliced a tire, leading to the crash, or the bus might have been traveling too fast on the wet road, according to Sgt. Martin Petrick of the Colorado State Patrol.
In December 1999, a bus carrying Texas youths on a church ski trip in Colorado skidded off an icy road and crashed, killing three and injuring nearly 50.
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