Bus driver in Colorado crash arrested

Five passengers were ejected when the bus rolled onto its side on a rain-slicked road

FAIRPLAY, Colorado (CNN) -- The driver of a bus that overturned, injuring more than three dozen passengers, was arrested shortly after he was released from the hospital, a Colorado State Patrol spokeswoman said Sunday.

Driver Greg Wright of Minnesota suffered minor injuries in the incident.

He now faces 45 counts of careless driving causing injuries, operating a defective vehicle and another count based on the commercial carrier's failure to comply with Department of Public Safety rules, said Maureen Cooper, a dispatcher for the Colorado State Patrol.

No one was killed in the accident, which left as many as 35 people injured, one of them critically. At least seven people remained in the hospital Sunday.

The tour bus, carrying a group of high school students from Burnsville, Minnesota, was traveling a curvy road in the rain through a mountainous pass when the vehicle rolled on to its side Saturday afternoon. The crash occurred on Highway 285 at Kenosha Pass, about 50 miles southwest of Denver.

The group was heading Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, Colorado, a camp owned by a Christian youth ministry called Young Life.

Young Life senior Vice President Ed Jackson said his organization requested Wright -- who had driven the youth ministry members from Minnesota in the past -- drive the bus because "he loved the kids."

Jackson said Young Life has chartered buses from the Minnesota City Bus Co. for at least the past three years and chose them because of their excellent safety record.

Rain, brakes possible causes

St. Martin Petrik said the roadway was wet and there was a drizzling rain at the time of the accident. It was not known at what speed the bus was traveling.

Petrik said at least five people were ejected from the bus in Saturday's accident. The rest of the students and adults were pulled out of the vehicle by other motorists who stopped to help.

Authorities closed the high mountain road as ambulances and police and sheriff cruisers converged on the area. Robert Leyba, of the the State Highway Patrol, said helicopters flew the injured to hospitals in Denver, Colorado Springs and Englewood.

Cooper said the vehicle's brakes were found to be out of adjustment. She could not confirm that was the cause of the accident, which is still under investigation.

Seven still in area hospitals

The co-owner of the Minnesota City Bus Co. -- who declined to give her name -- said she and her husband, who is also co-owner, were not clear on the charges.

"We have been told that the charges were probably going to be dropped," she said. "We've been in business 25 years and this is the first major accident we've ever had."

A spokeswoman for St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver said they initially treated 10 victims, three of which were still in the hospital Sunday afternoon. A 16-year-old female and a 27-year-old male are in serious condition, and a 17-year-old female is in fair condition.

A 17-year-old male student was still in critical condition with internal injuries at the Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, a spokeswoman said. A 16-year old female is in good condition and an 18-year-old male is in fair condition.

Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs saw 14 people, a spokeswoman said. Thirteen were treated and released, with one remaining in stable condition Sunday.