RCMP say a chartered shuttle bus crash near Mackenzie, B.C., prompted Code Orange mass-casualty responses at two hospitals and left 20 people injured.
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A single-vehicle crash involving a shuttle bus near Mackenzie, B.C., triggered Code Orange declarations at hospitals in the region and left 20 people injured, according to RCMP.
Police said they were called to a remote area near Highway 39 on Wednesday at about 9:10 a.m. after the bus went off the highway and ended up down an embankment about four kilometres south of Mackenzie, roughly 900 kilometres north of Vancouver.
RCMP said the scene was chaotic, with injuries ranging from minor to serious.
Northern Health said the Mackenzie and District Hospital declared a Code Orange, and the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George also declared a Code Orange as patients were transported by a fleet of air and ground ambulances.
BC Emergency Health Services said one patient was transported from the scene by air ambulance in serious condition. It said six others were transported by ground ambulance to a hospital, then transferred by air ambulance to another facility, with two in serious condition and four in serious but stable condition.
Emergency health officials said 13 additional patients in stable condition were transported by bus to hospital accompanied by advanced-care paramedics.
Northern Health said the Code Orange was lifted at the Mackenzie hospital at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, and taken down an hour later at the university hospital.
A spokesperson for IREN, a multinational data centre company with a 4.5-hectare site in Mackenzie, confirmed in a statement that the bus was chartered by one of its contractors. The spokesperson said the company was in close contact with the contractor, emergency responders and the RCMP to establish what happened, and that its immediate concern was for those on the bus and their families.
RCMP said the cause of the crash is still uncertain and that nothing has been ruled out.
Kiel Giddens, the legislature member for Prince George-Mackenzie, said the crash was a “scary situation” for a community of about 3,300 people and said the data centre is an important employer in the area.
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