A bus carrying seniors heading to a casino collided with a semi-trailer at a highway intersection in rural Canada this week, killing 15 people and injuring 10 more.
The collision occurred on Thursday (June 15) in a rural part of the Canadian province of Manitoba, and the bus had been carrying 25 people at the time.
Rob Hill, Commanding Officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told reporters that authorities in Manitoba were deploying all their resources to the scene, per Huffington Post.
Local news outlets aired images of a bus on fire in a ditch near a truck, while a smashed engine was seen on the road. The pavement nearby was covered in debris like broken glass and a bumper.
Mounted Police Superintendent Rob Lasson stated: "As of right now the drivers of both the bus and truck are alive and in hospital." He also revealed that the dead were mainly seniors, and that the bus was heading south and there would have been a stop and yield sign. He said the bus was crossing lanes when it was struck by a truck, and that authorities were still investigating who had the right of way.
"The public is reeling and asking a lot of questions and people are trying to determine if their loved ones were involved. Death on this scale is never normalized for us," Lasson admitted.
The crash scene was in Carberry, a city just over 100 miles west of Winnipeg. "The news from Carberry, Manitoba is incredibly tragic. I'm sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones today, and I'm keeping the injured in my thoughts," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.
"I cannot imagine the pain those affected are feeling - but Canadians are here for you," he added.
Police said that the seniors present on the bus were from Dauphin and other local areas nearby.
Kim Armstrong, the administrator of the Dauphin senior center, said the bus left from the senior center earlier on Thursday morning. She said that the senior community is extremely close, especially given that the city has a population of around 8,600 people.
"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, per CBS News.
William Doherty, CEO of Day & Ross, said in a statement that they were heartbroken about the crash but didn't have many details as to what happened. "We will fully cooperate with the investigation and offer any assistance and support that we can," he said, via The Guardian.
Nirmesh Vadera, a local businessman who was near the side of the highway when the crash occurred, told reporters that he went outside and saw a truck with a smashed engine on the highway, while the bus had been on fire in a ditch on the side of the road. "It was burning and all the [firefighters] and medical help and everybody was trying to get them away from the fire," he said.
