A woman who witnessed the aftermath of a fatal bus crash in Jasper National Park on Saturday says it was “really scary” to see the large vehicle overturned.
Lauren Johnston was waiting for the next tour bus near the Columbia Icefield when she observed the scene of the fatal bus rollover through her camera. 5:32
A witness to a fatal bus crash in Jasper National Park says he was surprised anyone survived after the glacier sightseeing vehicle rolled four or five times.
Three people died and 24 others were injured — many of them critically — after the bus crashed near the Columbia Icefield in the Alberta park on Saturday afternoon.
Photos and video show the red-and-white bus flipped onto its roof on a rocky slope near the Athabasca Glacier, which is one of the toes of the Columbia Icefield about 100 kilometres south of Jasper. The bus belongs to tour operator Pursuit, which runs icefield tours and other attractions in the area.
Vanja Krtolica and his family were on an earlier bus tour and had already visited the glacier, he said in an interview on Sunday. Their bus was waiting for a later tour bus to descend a hill so that it could return to the visitor centre.
Krtolica said he suddenly heard gasps as people on his bus watched the oncoming bus gain speed, careening down the hill.
“That’s when the bus hit the embankment sideways, flipped and probably rolled about four or five times, from what I could tell,” he said.
He said he saw two or three people thrown from the snow coach as it crashed. When the bus came to a stop, he said he saw two people climb out.
“My gut feeling was that it was very, very bad,” Krtolica said. “The initial impression of the accident was that I don’t know if anybody made it out”
Jasper RCMP detachment commander Sgt. Rick Bidaisee said Sunday that he was unable to confirm the cause of the rollover.
“We are at the infancy stage of the investigation,” Bidaisee said, adding that work was underway to try to remove the bus from the crash site so it can be examined.
“Safety is our paramount issue right now for all parties concerned in the recovery of the vehicle,” he said. He said additional resources were called in to help with the removal, and asked the public to stay clear of the area so that there would be room to work.
Bidaisee said he wasn’t able to share the identities of the victims in the crash, as investigators are still trying to notify next-of-kin, and he wasn’t able to confirm that everyone on the bus was a Canadian citizen.
David McKenna, president of Pursuit’s Jasper and Banff Collection, said the company does not know the cause of the accident.
“It would be inappropriate for me to speculate,” he told reporters.
He said the company has been on site supporting the RCMP’s investigation since Saturday afternoon.