Bus crash on Canada highway kills 1 Chinese tourist, hurts 24
A US bus carrying 37 Chinese tourists crashed near Prescott, Ontario, on Monday, killing one person and leaving 24 injured, four of them critically.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement on Tuesday that Canada’s tourism authorities have been asked to indentify the accident’s causes at an early date.
Branches of the ministry will guide efforts in handling matters arising from the accident, the statement said.
The bus was traveling from Ottawa to Toronto on Highway 401, the province’s main highway, when it veered off the road and smashed into a rock embankment about 60 miles southwest of Ottawa at 2:45 pm, according to Ontario Provincial Police.
Constable Suzanne Runciman, a provincial police spokeswoman in Prescott, said the bus was traveling on a stretch of road cut out of rock, and everyone on the right side of the bus was close to the rock.
The right side of the bus hit the rock when it veered off the road, shattering most of the windows and the windshield. It was the only vehicle involved in the crash.
The accident remains under investigation, Runciman said.
A hospital representative said in a tweet, “We have a Mandarin translator on-site to support them (crash victims)”.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne tweeted shortly after the accident, “As we wait to hear more about the situation, our thoughts are with everyone hurt in the crash, and the first responders who rushed to the scene to help.”
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa tweeted that it and the consulate-general in Toronto “are closely following this accident and are very concerned about condition of the injured passengers”.
Aidan Liang, the manager of Union Tour Express, a Massachusetts bus company, said the group was on a 10-day tour that began in Washington, DC, on May 29. The trip, which was to include a stop in Toronto, was planned to end on Friday.
Zhang Yunbi in Beijing contributed to this story.