Nearly 40 people were injured in the crash, including two people who were airlifted to hospital in serious condition.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Police say it could be weeks before charges are laid in connection with a serious collision involving a tour bus and a tow truck on a British Columbia highway.
RCMP Corporal Chris Newel says charges are pending after a bus slammed into a truck parked on the side of the Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia's Central Interior Saturday.
Cpl. Newel says the tow truck was responding to a car that had hit a deer.
Nearly 40 people were injured in the crash, including two people who were airlifted to hospital in serious condition.
An employee at Universal Coach Lines in Richmond, B.C., confirmed that one of the company's buses was involved in the collision.
The crash happened just before 10 a.m. on the Coquihalla Highway near Brookmere, B.C., about 40 kilometres south of Merritt.
Wendy Georgenson said the tow truck was just hooking onto the car when the bus crashed into it. Several people were standing around the truck at the time, she said.
"That's where one guy broke his leg. … They were screaming. It was mayhem," she said. "Then the bus hit the railing and it was like out of a movie. It was just horrible."
Cpl. Newel said the car's driver had called for a tow truck after crashing into a deer. The car was pulled over to the side of the highway when the truck arrived.
The truck driver was outside talking to the occupants of the car when the bus struck, he said.