Tragedy struck the rural town of Carberry, located 105 miles west of Manitoba’s capital of Winnipeg, when a bus heading for a casino collided with a semi-trailer truck. The crash killed fifteen people, most of them senior citizens, and left ten injured.
The bus had been carrying around 25 people from and around the city of Dauphin and had been travelling south. RCMP Supt Rob Lasson stated that the bus was required to have a stop and yield sign, but it is currently unknown who had the right of way.
The images from the crash site showed a large, smoking bus in a ditch and debris strewn across the road. In light of the tragedy, a family support center has been set up at a Lutheran Church in Dauphin for relatives to wait anxiously for news about their loved ones. Supt. Rob Hill expressed his condolences, saying “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 cannot get you the definitive answers you need more quickly.”
Ron Bretecher, who believes both of his parents were on the bus, is waiting for word about his father. Nirmesh Vadera, who was working close by the crash site, recounted how he saw first responders trying to extract people from the burning bus. This tragedy reminds Canadians of another deadly crash in 2018, when a bus collided with a truck, killing 16 people from the Humboldt Broncos minor league hockey team.