14 students, driver taken to hospital after Manitoba school bus crash: police

school day jalopy trilled o'er after driver tried to pass another bus: RCMP

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

School bus crashes near Swan River

Several people injured after Manitoba school bus rolls over

Our colleague Michelle McDougall was at the hospital in Swan River throughout the day today. 

She spoke with Sapotaweyak Cree Nation Chief Nelson Genaille, who had been with the families of the teens involved in the crash since before noon. 

Genaille said people are shocked and traumatized but are focused on recovery. 

"When you expect your child to go school, you're hoping your child is going to make it to school," Genaille said.

It's believed the rollover happened when the driver of the school bus, which was travelling south, tried to pass another bus and lost control, Manitoba RCMP says in a new statement. 

The bus went off the highway, rolled and then came to a stop when it was right side up, the statement adds. 

Manitoba RCMP also says a forensic reconstructionist has been deployed to the scene.  

Swan Valley School Division superintendent Rob Tomlinson said he's thankful there weren't "worse outcomes" based on the information the division has received about the incident. 

"Like any parent, this is everyone's worst nightmare and you don't want to hear that your kid's been in an accident," he said. 

Tomlinson, who attended the scene of the crash, said the bus looked "pretty beat up." 

Parents are in shock and they would have had to drive past the accident scene to get to the Swan Valley Health Centre, he said. 

"I'm sure [when] they drove by that accident it was probably weighing pretty heavy on them about the welfare of their kids," Tomlinson said. 

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.

---

---