A bus carrying seniors to a casino collided with a semi-trailer truck at a highway intersection in a rural part of the Canadian province of Manitoba Thursday, killing 15 people and injuring 10 more, police said.
Rob Hill, Commanding Officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the bus was carrying 25 people and authorities in Manitoba were deploying all their resources to the scene. Ten people were taken to hospitals.
TV broadcasters aired images of what looked like a large van or bus smoldering in a ditch near a transport truck with a smashed engine on a road. The pavement was littered with debris — broken glass, a large bumper and what looked like a walking aid. Seven blue and yellow tarps were stretched out.
WEDDING BUS CRASHES IN AUSTRALIA, KILLING 10 AND INJURING 25; COUNTRY’S DEADLIEST SINCE 1994
Authorities respond to the scene of a major collision that closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Manitoba, on June 15, 2023. (Steve Lambert/The Canadian Press via AP)
The crash scene was in Carberry, a city 105 miles west of Manitoba’s capital of Winnipeg.
“The news from Carberry, Manitoba is incredibly tragic,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. “I’m sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones today, and I’m keeping the injured in my thoughts.”
A family support center has been set up at a Lutheran Church in Dauphin, Manitoba for relatives. Police said the people on the bus were from Dauphin and the areas around it.
The senior community is extremely tight knit in the city of around 8,600 people and the center is sometimes like a second home, she said.
“It’s huge to lose so many individuals of our community and of course it is shocking. We just pray for those that are surviving,” she said.
Armstrong said seniors and community members often go on trips on buses to nearby events or casinos.
Nirmesh Vadera, who was working at a business on the side of the highway when the crash happened, said he went outside and saw a transport truck with a smashed engine on the highway. The bus was on fire in the grass on the side of the road. First responders were trying to get people out of the burning vehicle, he said.
“It was burning and all the (firefighters) and medical help and everybody was trying to get them away from the fire,” he said.
The crash brought back memories of the 2018 bus crash in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan that killed 16 people from the Humboldt Broncos minor league hockey team. Lasson said investigators in that crash are assisting.