A church says one of its members died and several others were injured after the bus they were on lost control, rolled over and ejected children and adults on a northern Alberta highway on the weekend.
Grande Prairie Seventh-day Adventist Church says the members were on their way back to Grande Prairie, Alta., from a city northwest of Edmonton, when their bus crashed on an icy road while trying to switch lanes near an exit on Highway 43.
“Dark and cold, they did their best to help each other,” the church’s pastor, Dan Wilson, said in a Sunday statement on the church’s Facebook page.
“One of our kids found a phone and called 911. I hate with all my being to share that Lillian Banda died at the scene after being ejected from the bus.”
Wilson did not identify Banda’s role with the church. The Alberta Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church said in a statement on its website the person who died was an adult leader with “the Grand Prairie Pathfinder Club.”
The church’s website says its Pathfinder program is for youth between 10 and 17 and is “focused on spiritual growth, leadership development, community service, and outdoor adventure.”
RCMP in Grande Prairie said Sunday they responded to a call about a rollover at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Police said the bus was carrying 37 children and adults.
A 50-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene, six people were taken to hospital in serious condition and 16 others were assessed for injuries, police said.
Mounties said passengers who weren’t injured were taken to a firehall in Debolt, so they could get warm.
An initial investigation has found road conditions may have been a factor in the bus’s collision with a median, before it rolled over and landed on its wheels.
An RCMP collision reconstructionist attended the scene and Mounties said an investigation is ongoing.
-The Canadian Press
Add comment
Comments