WELS members involved in fatal Utah bus crash
Eight WELS members, plus the father of one of the members and his friend were onboard the tour bus that crashed in southern Utah on Sunday. None suffered life-threatening injuries, but eight other passengers were killed.
The group of ten was from Shepherd of the Hills in Tucson, Ariz. They were traveling on a bus carrying at least 50 passengers that ran off a highway, rolled over several times, and tumbled 41 feet down an embankment. The bus was returning to Phoenix after a ski trip to Telluride, Colo.
Pastor Alan Eckert of Shepherd of the Hills reports most of the WELS group were in their 20s and that the most serious injuries included crushed vertebrae, broken limbs, and a collapsed lung. "The parents are just so thankful," says Eckert. "That not one sustained a life-threatening injury is miraculous."
The injured among the WELS group were being treated in hospitals in three states—Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Pastors from WELS congregations in Grand Junction, Colo., and Farmington, N.M., were ministering to the victims taken to hospitals in their communities.
