RCMP are investigating a head-on collision between a school bus and pickup truck Jan. 24, which landed the bus on it’s side in the ditch.
RCMP Sgt. Rose says the students and bus driver were uninjured in the crash, which occurred at 3:50 p.m. on Highway 16 near Alix Frontage Rd, west of Houston.
The pickup driver was brought to the Smithers hospital with minor injuries, Sgt. Rose said.
He says the bus was headed to Houston with 18 students from the Smithers Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School when the collision occurred, and when RCMP arrived students were being offloaded from the bus by civilians.
They were then loaded onto a Greyhound bus to keep warm, and were checked by paramedics before being brought to Houston Christian School where they were picked up by parents, said Sgt. Rose.
Sgt. Rose says RCMP attribute the collision to the pickup driver’s inattention to traffic conditions.
Sgt. Rose says a westbound pickup swerved into the opposite lane to avoid hitting two other westbound vehicles which were stopped and ready to turn left off the highway.
After the crash, the bus slid off the highway into the ditch, and another vehicle coming upon the accident drove into the other ditch to avoid the scene, Sgt. Rose said.
A light snow was falling at the time but little had built up on the highway, and RCMP say alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the accident.
Charges are expected against the pickup driver, said Sgt. Rose.