3 tourists die as bus flips on Alberta icefield
COLUMBIA ICEFIELD, ALTA.• Angela Bye couldn’t believe her eyes Saturday when she used the telephoto lens of her camera to get a closer look at what appeared to be an overturned vehicle on the Columbia Icefield, one of the country’s prime tourist spots.
Three people were killed and 14 others suffered life-threatening injuries when a glacier bus carrying tourists to a glacier, rolled over.
Bye, who’s from Calgary, and her husband had taken the icefield tour earlier in the day. When her husband said it looked like another bus had turned over she had a closer look.
“I took my camera and zoomed as far as it could go and I’m like yeah, it is wheels up. I could see even more stuff and realized they were still getting people out and I was shocked at that point to realize this has just happened,” Bye said.
“It’s still surreal for all of us. We’re probably all still in shock as to what happened and that’s why it hasn’t hit that it could have been us.”
Police worked to remove the upturned vehicle throughout the day Sunday.
A lone RCMP truck with its lights flashing guarded the entrance to the road where the vehicle appeared to have rolled about 50 metres down a steep embankment for as yet unknown reasons. Authorities were still trying to work out how to move the coach.
“That’s going to be part and parcel is the logistics to have that vehicle removed
from the site itself,” RCMP Cpl. Leigh Drinkwater said.
One person could be seen on top of the “Ice Explorer,” which remained on its roof.
The iconic red and white vehicles, which look like buses with monster-truck tires, regularly leave from a visitor centre and take tourists up a rough road onto the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park.
In all, 27 people were aboard when it crashed. Air ambulances from across the province ferried the injured from the picturesque but remote location.
Alberta Heath Services said 24 patients were taken to hospitals in Edmonton,
Grande Prairie, Calgary and Banff, 14 of them with life-threatening injuries.
AHS said five others were in serious condition while the remaining five were listed as stable.
There was no further word Sunday on the conditions or identities of those involved. Police did say the three people killed were adults. They also confirmed no further fatalities.
In a tweet Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his condolences.
In a statement on Sunday, the company that runs the tours expressed sympathy for the victims and their families. Dave Mckenna, president of Pursuit, also thanked first responders.
The company reopened the icefield tours about a month ago with 50 per cent capacity after being closed
due to COVID-19.