Nine killed in ski tour bus crash

(CNN) -- Nine people were killed and 19 injured after a tour bus carrying people on a ski trip left a highway and rolled over Sunday night in southeastern Utah, a highway patrol spokesman said.

At least 50 people were on the Arrow Stage Lines bus when it crashed on state Highway 163, about five miles north of Mexican Hat, at 7:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET), said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden.

Troopers reported the road was wet but not icy, he said.

The bus was traveling south from Telluride, Colorado, to Phoenix, Arizona, when it left the right side of the highway and rolled over, Roden said. See where the crash occurred »

Police said the bus lost control on a curve, ran off the road and rolled over several times, tumbling 41 feet down an embankment, according to The Associated Press.

"When the vehicle was overturning, the roof of the bus split open and multiple occupants of the vehicle were ejected," Roden told the AP. Watch how the crash left the bus a mangled hulk »

Rescue crews took the injured people to hospitals in Utah, Colorado and Arizona, he said.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that ambulances from Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico responded to the accident, and a helicopter from Colorado could not fly to the crash site because of winter storms.

Four of the dead were male and five were female, the Utah Highway Patrol said.

Most of the passengers were returning home from a weekend ski trip to Telluride, he said. E-mail to a friend

CNN Radio's Barbara Hall contributed to this report.

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