Canada also faces extremely difficult climatic conditions. Four people have died and several have been injured after a bus crash on a British Columbia highway on New Year’s Eve, local authorities said Sunday.
In all, 53 people were sent to four hospitals in the western Canadian province, of which 36 were treated “for injuries ranging from serious to minor”, specifies Interior Health, the regional health authority. Sunday morning, eight people were still hospitalized, including two in critical condition.
Many storm warnings for a week
According to the federal police in charge of the investigation, everything suggests that the “extremely icy road” caused the overturning of the bus. British Columbia has been hit for the past week by winter storm warnings that have brought heavy snowfall, including to the area where the crash happened, a three-hour drive east of Vancouver.
“Our hearts go out to those affected by the accident, their loved ones, as well as first responders and caregivers,” British Columbia Premier David Eby said in a statement, saying he was “under the shocked and saddened” by the news.
Since Friday, Canada has been facing a series of winter storms that affect the country from west to east. In Ontario, extreme conditions derailed a freight train on Saturday, causing all trains between Toronto and Ottawa and Toronto and Montreal to be canceled for Christmas Day. Before this accident, the fall of a tree on a locomotive and power outages had already caused major delays overnight from Friday to Saturday, with some passengers between Ottawa and Toronto having to wait nearly 6 p.m.