Supt. Rob Lasson from the Manitoba RCMP major crimes unit, Premier Heather Stefanson and Lanette Siragusa, CEO of Shared Health are set to hold a press conference at 12 p.m. on Monday to provide an update on the tragic bus crash that happened Thursday morning and ended in 15 casualties.
The last known update from Shared Health said 10 victims were still in the hospital as of Sunday morning with six in critical care.
The RCMP has launched an investigation into what caused the crash. RCMP Sup. Rob Lasson said the bus and truck have been seized for further analysis, but which party is responsible for the accident remains unclear.
The last update given by the RCMP was that dashcam footage seized from the transport vehicle showed the truck that collided with the bus of seniors had the right of way when a minibus pulled into the intersection.
“We are not assigning culpability or laying blame at this time,” Lasson told reporters Friday afternoon, but said witness accounts corroborate the dashcam footage.
While all victims in the hospital have been identified and their families notified, identifying deceased victims is “impossible” because they all sustained significant trauma to their faces, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John K. Younes said.
Forensics teams will have to rely on fingerprints, dental records and serial numbers on joint and hip replacements to identify the 15 dead, the chief examiner said.
Lasson said the investigation could take three months or longer, depending on the outcomes of the truck’s investigation, judicial authorizations and when survivors are interviewed.
“We don’t want to approach people that are in recovery because re-interviewing them can be very traumatic,” he said. “We need to be very sensitive to that and very patient as investigators.”
Global News will be livestreaming the conference.
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