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15 people, mostly seniors, killed in highway crash in Canada, official says

Published:Thursday | June 15, 2023 | 7:36 PM
This photo shows the scene of a major collision that has closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Manitoba on Thursday June 15, 2023. Authorities did not confirm casualties, but health officials said they were preparing a mass casualty response. (Steve Lambert/The Canadian Press via AP)

TORONTO (AP) — 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 (RCMP), 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 smouldering 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.

RCMP Superintendent Rob Lasson said “as of right now the drivers of both the bus and truck are alive and in hospital.” He did not say if they were among the 10 listed as injured. The dead were mainly seniors.

Lasson said the bus was heading south and there would have been a stop and yield sign. He said the bus was crossing the east bound lanes when it was struck by the truck that was going east, adding that who had the right of way is critical to the investigation.

“The public is reeling and asking a lot of questions and people are trying to determine if their loved ones were involved,” Lasson said. “Death on this scale is never normalised for us.”

The crash scene was in Carberry, a city 170 kilometres (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 centre 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.

Flags have been lowered to half-mast at the Manitoba legislature.

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