PHOENIX -- It was a weekend getaway dozens of Valley families looked forward to every winter. The eight-hour bus trip to Telluride, Colorado was a small price to pay for a ski vacation packed with fun and friends.
In January 2008, the weather was just right for snowboarding and ski conditions. Jeff Lattomus said it was the best weather he had seen in decades.
“The last day was probably the best day that I have ever had in skiing in Telluride in 25 years,” Lattomus said. "It was terrific. The snow had just dumped that night. It was dumping that day. Everybody was in a great mood."
Lattomus had been on the ski trip for the past 18 years with his wife Cami. They took their two children with them this time and enjoyed their vacation along with hundreds of friends and new acquaintances.
Debbie Bowden and her family had been on the ski trip for several years. Each year, she would encourage more people, including her children and other families, to come with her family on the trip because it was such a fun time.
“We just had a blast,” she said.
Everything seemed perfect that winter, and the ride home started out fine. Bad weather, however, prevented them from taking their normal route home from Telluride.
“We were fine," Bowden said. "We had done this trip so many times, we didn’t think anything of it."
Bowden said everyone on the ride home was exhausted.
"It’s been a long weekend of skiing. You’re tired. We do the sandwiches, and we start the movie,” she said, explaining the activities meant to keep all 53 on board the bus comfortable.
“Most people are knocked out,” she said.
Five hours into the ride, however, the bus drove off the road.
“All hell breaks loose,” Lattomus said. “This wonderful trip turns into the biggest nightmare you could’ve ever imagined, just like that,” he said snapping his fingers.
“Your eyes drop down, oh my God,” said Cami Lattomus, who was 41 at the time. “You’re in the middle of the most horrific nightmare you can imagine."
The bus, traveling along US 163 in a remote area in Mexican Hat, Utah, flipped one time, landing on its wheels.
The impact peeled the roof off the bus, and 50 of the 53 people on board were ejected from their seats into the cold darkness.
“I remember hitting the first side, then lights were out for me,” Cami said.
“The first thing I remember seeing was Jeff’s son,” said Daniel Torres, who was 18 at the time of the crash.
“I was underneath the roof of the bus, and I remember him screaming the most shrill scream you could ever imagine and screaming just, ‘Help me! Help me!’” Torres recalled.
“I looked up, and I saw Sabre Bowden (Debbie Bowden’s husband) not really making a noise, but gasping for air," Torres said. "He was actually being compressed and smashed."
Immediately, Torres said he grabbed his cell phone to call for help.
“No service,” he said.
“All I remember hearing is lots of screaming,” Torres said. “At one point, it was completely dark ... I just felt my heart was beating extremely, extremely fast, and I didn’t know how to take it,” he said, explaining how he saw one of his friends “bleeding like crazy” from his head.
Torres, surrounded by catastrophically injured people and some that had already expired, said he grabbed his friend’s cell phone.
“No service,” he said.
Instead, Torres said they used the cell phones for light as they tried desperately to help the other victims and find any passerby on the highway to assist them.
“The noises were absolutely crazy,” he said. "And I kept thinking this is something that happens in a movie. It doesn’t happen to me.”
As a result of that crash, nine people died.
According to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Rick Eldredge, Utah investigators determined the driver, Welland Lotan, was awake and traveling within five miles per hour of the posted speed on the highway during the crash.
According to the San Juan County prosecutor’s office, Lotan was cited and paid fines for improper lane travel and a log book violation, both misdemeanors.
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