Abbotsford crash: Serious collision involving small bus sends multiple people to hospital
More than a dozen people had to be treated by paramedics after a serious multi-vehicle crash involving a small bus carrying farm workers in Abbotsford Tuesday morning.
BC Emergency Health Services said an air ambulance, along with six ground ambulances, responded to the crash in the 32000 block of MacLure Road.
Sixteen patients were treated and five sent to hospital, including three who were in critical condition.
“It was scary. It was scary and terrifying,” said Mandeep Singh, who lives nearby and went to the scene after hearing the crash.
Video from the scene shortly after the accident shows the front end of a mangled red truck, a shattered windshield and damaged front end of a shuttle bus, as well as another damaged vehicle.
Witnesses tell CTV News Vancouver they heard tires screeching and that the crash sounded like a bomb going off.
Stephen Appleton lives nearby and rushed barefoot to the scene.
“My heart almost fell out of my chest when I saw the bus, two other vehicles, a bunch of people scrambling,” he says.
Appleton, who knows first aid, says he first went to the bus.
“The driver was trapped, had both his legs pinned between the seat and the dash and the steering wheel,” Appleton explained.
He says after doing what he could for the bus driver, he moved to the truck where an unconscious driver was also trapped.
“I couldn’t free him. The only thing I could do is lean him back. I did a rapid body check,” he says.
Singh says firefighters were needed to free the trapped drivers.
“Firefighters did their job well. They cut the vehicle and took the people out of the vehicle,” Singh explained.
A spokesperson for the company that owns the shuttle bus says there were nine farm workers on board at the time of the accident. Manjit Gill says the workers were headed to a nursery.
Casandra Appleton also heard the crash and ran to the scene, carrying her baby.
“It took a while for police even to get here,” she said.
Appleton says she tried to comfort some of those involved in the accident.
“I did try and help some of the women to get them to calm down and settle down,” she said.
The road was blocked off for hours as police investigated.
Neighbours say there are far too many accidents on McClure Road and that too many drivers speed there.
Police say they are still trying to piece together what led to the accident Tuesday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.