School bus crashes with semi west of Edmonton

Parkland RCMP say a school bus with children inside was involved in a crash with a semi Friday morning in Spruce Grove, just west of Edmonton.

It happened around 8:15 a.m. at the intersection of Diamond Avenue and Golden Spike Road.

Police say three children between the ages of eight and 13-years-old were on the bus at the time of the crash.

Traffic Alert: Please avoid intersection of Diamond Avenue & Golden Spike Road in #SpruceGrove. Traffic is being rerouted due to a motor vehicle collision. Please give emergency crews room to work.

— City of Spruce Grove (@citysprucegrove) November 4, 2022

Alberta Health Services says two of the children and both drivers were injured, both children were taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.

A woman in her 60s and a man in his 40s were also taken to hospital in serious but stable condition. The third child on the bus was treated by EMS and not taken to hospital initially, but now all three are in AHS care.

“The three involved children have injuries more significant than immediately apparent on scene,” RCMP said in a Friday afternoon update.

Officers say the children are now in stable condition.

A semi-truck damaged after a crash that involved a school bus in Spruce Grove west of Edmonton on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. (Jonas Gilbart, CityNews photo)

Intersection has been a cause for concern

Chris Heyligers, who works at Bartle and Gibson, was in the area when it happened, and she and her coworkers knew exactly what to do when they heard the loud bang of a collision.

“We were struggling to find blankets. I grabbed my coat and I ran,” Heyligers said.

She said to CityNews that she saw at least two children ejected from the bus, one in the intersection and the other in the ditch.

“I bent down to look at him, and he was awake, although obviously very frightened.”

Heyligers says the children were immediately tended to by community members, and first responders arrived on the scene quickly.

The group has witnessed their fair share of collisions over the last 17 years working at a business near the intersection.

Heyligers says she penned a letter to the City of Spruce Grove five years ago highlighting her fear about the intersection. She re-sent the same letter Friday morning after she saw the students that were taken away in ambulances.

“This is what I was fearing, and this is what I said in the letter: are we waiting for somebody to get killed, such as a child? Which we came too close to today,” Heyligers said.

While the majority of the collisions at the industrial intersection are minor, Heyligers says she has witnessed enough injury and trauma to call for something to be done.

Chris Heyligers, right, speaks with CityNews at the scene of a school bus crash in Spruce Grove west of Edmonton on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. (Jonas Gilbart, CityNews photo)

Jennifer Hetherington, a spokesperson for the city, says they did take on a third-party study of the intersection in 2016 following a complaint but did not find the intersection needed traffic lights.

“Based on data from collisions responded to by Spruce Grove Emergency Services in 2021, the intersection of Golden Spike Road and Diamond Avenue does not rank in the top 10 intersections for frequency of collisions in Spruce Grove. In 2021, we responded to three collisions. In 2020, one,” Hetherington said in a statement.

The city plans to set up intersection monitors and use a third-party engineering firm to analyze if any changes are needed.

“Our thoughts are with those involved in this morning’s collision, their parents, families, and the entire community. The safety of the motoring public is of paramount importance to the City of Spruce Grove,” Hetherington said.

Parkland School Division (PSD) released a statement Friday addressing the crash.

“Right now our focus is on our students and their families in the aftermath of such a traumatic event,” said PSD superintendent Shauna Boyce.

“Initial reports from the RCMP indicated that our students and the driver were stable upon arrival at the hospital and we are grateful for the first responders who were on scene quickly to help. The safety of our students and staff is our top priority, and providing safe and caring environments starts the moment those children board our buses in the morning. We would also like to thank those helpers on the scene who stopped during their morning commute to assist.”

PSD says its Trauma Response Team was sent to schools in the area and will support not only students and their families, but also staff and classmates if they need it, and for as long as they need.

Police are asking drivers to stay away from the area as they investigate the crash.