Report examining safety at site of deadly southwestern Manitoba bus crash to be released today

Officials will provide details Monday afternoon about the findings of a road safety strategy report on a southwestern Manitoba highway intersection where a crash killed 17 people on a casino bus trip in summer.

Safety at the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway near the town of Carberry, Man., was studied after the deadly collision between a semi-trailer truck and the bus full of seniors on a day trip in June 2023.

The crash killed 17 people and injured nine others.

CBC News will livestream the news conference about the safety report at 1 p.m. CT.

RCMP previously said the bus carrying the seniors was going south on Highway 5 and crossing the eastbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway when it was hit by a semi-trailer truck.

Mounties said they'd confirmed the semi had the right of way after reviewing dashcam footage from the larger vehicle.

The posted speed limit on both highways at the intersection where the crash happened is 100 km/h.

The intersection is surrounded by fields just north of Carberry, a small southwestern Manitoba town about 160 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The bus involved in the crash had 25 people on it — 19 women and six men — ranging in age from 58 to 88.

Quality Care Transit, which launched in 2022, was the operator of the seniors' 24-seat bus, which left the Dauphin Active Living Centre the morning of the crash.

The company's co-owner was the driver of the vehicle, which was en route to the Sand Hills Casino near Carberry, about 150 kilometres south of the city of Dauphin.

Seniors and community members from Dauphin, which has a population of about 8,000, often go on bus trips to nearby events and casinos, an official with the active living centre said at the time.

A June 16, 2023, drone photo shows the highway intersection that was the site of a fatal crash near Carberry, Man., on June 15, 2023. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)