4 flown to Winnipeg hospital with 'significant' injuries after school bus rollover in Manitoba

schooltime jalopy crashes nigh Swan River

Kinew on the possibility of mandatory seatbelts on school buses after rollover

At an unrelated news conference, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was asked whether school buses should have seatbelts after several people were injured in a school bus rollover north of Swan River on Tuesday. Kinew said he's 'open to the conversation' but called for patience around finding out more about the incident 'before we rush to propose the right solution.'

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the incident was a “very scary situation” while speaking at an unrelated news conference this afternoon. 

Kinew said he had spoken with Chief Genaille of the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation. 

He was also asked about the possibility of mandatory seatbelts on school buses in Manitoba.

"I'm open to the conversation," the premier said. "But we have to be patient about identifying what took place in this instance before we rush to propose the right solution."

RCMP say the crash happened just south of Mafeking, which is around 400 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Four people in stable condition are being taken by air to Winnipeg’s Health Science Centre. Three are going to the children’s hospital there and one to the adult emergency department for further care. 

Health Authorities say the 14 students on the bus were aged 16 to 18. 

The code orange alert called earlier today at the Health Sciences Centre, Manitoba's largest health facility, has been stood down. 

A code orange remains in place at the Swan Valley Health Centre, where a family room has also been set up, with mental health support available. 

Clarification: An earlier version of this post said the Health Sciences Centre had called a code orange, when in fact it had called a code orange alert. A code orange alert is a readiness stage where a mass casualty incident has happened and teams assess what resources will be needed. 

Three counsellors and the Swan Valley School Division's knowledge keeper were sent to the Swan Valley Health Centre to provide emotional support to students and families. 

The Elbert Chartrand Friendship Centre, a non-profit Indigenous organization, also opened its doors to offer coffee and lunch to families needing a place to gather. 

In his statement, Tomlinson said the division remains committed to supporting the students and families as they "work together to process and recover from this traumatic event."

The students were from Swan Valley Regional Secondary School and the Northern Lights Institute of Trades and Technology, also known as NITT. 

Everyone on the bus was assessed at the scene and taken to the Swan Valley Health Centre for further evaluation, Tomlinson said in the statement. 

Weather conditions at the time of the bus crash were ideal for ice formation on highways and other surfaces. Radar coverage is spotty north of Swan River, but weather stations in the area did report some light precipitation on Tuesday afternoon, likely falling as rain as temperatures hovered around 2 C.

Temperatures on Tuesday morning dropped from 1 C at 8 a.m. To -3 C at 9 a.m. That likely would have frozen what precipitation that did fall, leading to icy road conditions at the time. 

We’re on the way to the Swan River area where the bus rollover happened earlier this morning.

RCMP received the call at 8:35 a.m., responding to the location on Highway 10 about 13 kilometres south of Mafeking, which is about 390 kilometers north of Brandon.

We are reaching out to the Swan Valley Health Centre and RCMP as part of our coverage and will update our reporting from Swan River when we arrive later this afternoon.

A school bus from nearby Sapotaweyak Cree Nation carrying 15 students, Grades 9 to 12, crashed on Highway 10 on Tuesday morning, according to Sapotaweyak Chief Nelson Genaille.

Genaille visited the site and described seeing broken glass and smashed windows on the bus.

He says conditions on Highway 10 were slippery from winter rains on Monday.

Parents were heading to Swan Valley Health Centre in Swan River to be with their children, Genaille said.

A code orange alert — a readiness stage for teams that is issued after potentially large-scale incidents that involve, for instance, multi-vehicle crashes and mass casualties — was called at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre and at Swan Valley Health Centre. 

Four people suffered "significant but non-life-threatening injuries" and were taken to hospital, RCMP said in a news release. Multiple other students were treated for injuries at the scene and taken to hospital. 

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