CANADA: THREE DEAD IN GLACIER WATCHING VAN ACCIDENT

Sylvie Claire / July 19, 2020

A glacier-watching coach overturned at a popular tourist site in the Rockies in western Alberta on Saturday, leaving three dead and at least 24 injured, Canadian media reported.

The all-terrain bus overturned Saturday afternoon in the Columbia Glacier area in Jasper National Park in Alberta, the public broadcaster CBC said.

Photos posted to social media by social media show the red and white coach, fitted with oversized tires for driving on snow, overturned on the roof among the rocks, down a sloping slope.

Loss of vehicle control

The bus is owned by Pursuit, which transports tourists on all-terrain vehicles to the Athabasca Glacier, according to CBC. The vehicle lost control and rolled down the hill, one of the witnesses, Vanja Krtolica, told The Globe and Mail.

"Suddenly everyone started shouting because they saw that the bus had lost control," said the woman, who was in a similar vehicle.

Of the 27 passengers on the bus, three adults were killed and "a number of other passengers were seriously injured," according to a federal police report cited by Canadian media. Several helicopters and ground ambulances were mobilized to evacuate the wounded to hospitals in the region, according to television.

24 people hospitalized

Alberta health officials said 24 people were transported by helicopter or ambulance to hospitals in Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Hinton and Calgary.

The accident occurred in one of the most touristic areas of Western Canada along the Glacier Parkway, a scenic highway that runs through Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Stretching across the continental divide, the Columbia Glacier is the largest of the Canadian Rockies, covering 230 km2 and reaching a depth of 365 meters, according to Travel Alberta.