RCMP and other emergency crews attend the scene of a fatal collision between a multi-person transport van and a semi-trailer at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5 near Carberry, Man.Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun
Fifteen people are dead and 10 others injured after a bus carrying mostly seniors collided with a semi-trailer on the Trans-Canada highway in Manitoba, police say.
The bus had been travelling from a seniors centre in Dauphin to a casino in Carberry, about 200 kilometres south, when it was struck by the semi-trailer at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 5 in Carberry shortly before noon on Thursday. The semi-trailer had been heading east on Highway 1 and the bus heading south on Highway 5.
“Sadly, this is a day in Manitoba, and across Canada, that will be remembered as one of tragedy and incredible sadness,” Assistant Commissioner Rob Hill, commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP, told a news conference Thursday afternoon.
“To all those waiting, I can’t imagine how difficult it is not knowing if the person you love the most will be making it home tonight. I’m so sorry we can not get you the definitive answers you need more quickly.”
The site of a crash between a bus and a semi-trailer, which killed 15 people, on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Carberry, Man.Mikaela MacKenzie/Winnipeg Free Press
Images from the scene showed a semi-trailer with the logo from the Day & Ross trucking company with damage to its front, and the shell of a white bus consumed by smoke and flames. Blue sheets covered the bodies of victims; yellow evidence markers and debris were scattered across the highway. The trucking company did not immediately return a call for comment on Thursday.
The RCMP deployed all of its available resources to the collision site. Twelve ambulances, in addition to air ambulances and other first responders were called to help. The injured were transported to four hospitals.
Nirmesh Vadera, an employee at nearby Robin’s Nest Motel and Cafe, said he was inside working at the time of the crash, but saw its aftermath around noon.
“I went outside, and I saw a passenger vehicle was burning out and there was smoke coming out around 20 or 30 metres high,” he said. “It was really bad.”
Mr. Vadera said the passenger vehicle was a skeleton and the semi-truck had its entire front end smashed in.
Kim Armstrong, the administrator of the Dauphin Active Living Centre, said the bus left from there Thursday morning. The senior community is extremely tightknit in the city of around 8,600 people, and the centre 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,” she said. “We just pray for those that are surviving.”
Ms. Armstrong said seniors and community members often go on bus trips to nearby events or casinos, and that the tragic crash feels unimaginable.
“It’s hard to put it into words,” she said.
A critical care team loads a victim of the Trans Canada Highway mass casualty collision near Carberry, Man., into a plane for transport to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg at the Brandon Municipal Airport.Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun
Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said much of the small community will be spending the evening waiting for news at a crisis centre set up by RCMP. It’s likely everyone in Dauphin will know someone who was killed or injured in the crash, he said. For now though, they still don’t know who is alive.
“People are just sitting and wondering,” he said. “That’s probably the hardest thing to come to grips with, is dealing with the unknown right now.”
Mr. Bosiak described the atmosphere as filled with anxiety and sadness as people remain hopeful that their loved ones are among the 10 victims being treated in hospital, and not the 15 so far confirmed dead.
“We just can’t believe it. It was people on a bus for a day trip hoping to have some fun, and then tragedy.”
The mayor said he knows the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway well and that it can be difficult at times to get off the rural roadway and across the double-lane thoroughfare.
Barbara Czech, spokesperson for the Sand Hills casino, said the bus was expected to arrive at noon.
“It hits a little bit close to home,” she said. “Obviously, an accident is always tragic, this one especially so. It’s just devastating the number of lives that have been affected.”
RCMP Major Crime Services has now taken over the investigation.
Superintendent Rob Lasson, of the Manitoba RCMP Major Crime Services, said the drivers of both vehicles survived and are being treated in hospital. He declined to speculate on reasons for the collision but said the intersection has a stop sign and a yield sign.
“This incident does have echoes of the tragic collision that happened in Humboldt, Sask., and we are very much aware of that,” said Supt. Lasson, referring to the April, 2018, bus crash that killed 16 people and injured 13 others with the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team. “We have already linked into the investigators in Saskatchewan, who have firsthand experience.”
Even at the outset of an investigation of this nature, the RCMP is “alive to the fact” that there could be a criminal element to this case, he said.
Condolences poured in across social media after reports of the collision.
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said, in a statement, the flags of the province’s legislative building have been lowered to half-mast to respect the victims. “Our hearts are broken, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of all the lives impacted by the horrific and devastating tragedy,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the news “incredibly tragic.”
“I’m sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones today, and I’m keeping the injured in my thoughts,” he said. “I cannot imagine the pain those affected are feeling – but Canadians are here for you.”
With a report from The Canadian Press