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CEDAR CITY -- The Utah Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal accident where a bus carrying Japanese tourists flipped near Cedar City Monday night. Three were killed and 12 others were injured.
The tourists were in Utah to visit the national parks. They were on their way to Bryce Canyon Monday night when the accident happened.
Related:
Deadly Utah tour bus crash recalls 2009 wreck
The tour bus crash that killed three Japanese tourists and injured 11 others on their way to Bryce Canyon National Park happened miles from a 2009 bus crash that claimed 6 Chinese tourists near Hoover Dam.UHP troopers returned to the accident scene Tuesday afternoon, looking for what may have caused the driver of the tour van to lose control on Interstate 15, just north of Cedar City.
A leading theory right now is that the 26-year-old driver from Japan was drowsy.
"Of the indicators that we see is this type of an accident -- where the driver drifts into the median and then loses control. Then the van actually rolled two or three times," said Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Ryan Bauer.
Two men and a women were killed in the crash. Nippon Travel Agency spokesman Naofumi Yoshida told The Associated Press the victims were Hiroki Hayase, a 20-year-old man from Osaka, a 38-year-old man from Tokyo and a 40-year-old woman from Tokyo. They were ejected from the bus.
The names of two of those killed were not released, and UHP troopers have consulted the Japanese consulate in Denver to notify families of the passengers.
Ten people injured in the crash remain in the hospital: three of the victims with less serious injuries remain at Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City, listed in fair condition; seven of the critically-injured patients are being treated at hospitals along the Wasatch Front.
Two others, including the driver, have been released after being treated for minor injuries.
Troopers credit several people who stopped to help out, including off-duty firefighters from Las Vegas, a nurse and some EMTs. They helped to stabilize the victims until the 13 ambulances, from throughout Iron County, arrived to the scene.
"With an accident like this, seconds can save lives," Bauer said. "Even though it doesn't take very long for our paramedics and our EMTs to get there from Cedar, even the 30 seconds or a minute that people were sitting there working and stabilizing these people before they got there may have saved some of these lives."
The accident has become national news in Japan, and several Japanese journalists based in Los Angeles are in Iron County to report on the tragedy.
"Very shocking," said Ichiro Takagi, of Nippon TV. "In Japanese news, they picked up this story -- most important, top story."
Troopers promise a thorough investigation into the cause of the rollover and say they are not ruling anything out until they have solid answers into what happened.
"There are many different things that we are looking at. Just like any other investigation, we just have to dot all the ‘I's' and cross all the ‘T's' until we get to the end," Bauer said.
When UHP finishes the investigation, prosecutors will review it to determine if the driver will face any criminal charges. We're told he is a student in the United States and works for Canyon Transportation, a tour company based in Sandy.
A check of the tour company's safety record over the past two years did not show any other accidents.
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Story compiled with contributions from Sam Penrod and the Associated Press.
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