Cabot Trail bus crash victim dies

A woman who was on the bus that rolled over on Cape Breton's Cabot Trail died Monday.

RCMP Corp. Scott McRaesaid the victim was a 70-year-old woman.

Two others are in serious but stable condition after Sunday's crash.

The bus left a straight section of road on the Cabot Trail, between Neils Harbour and Ingonish, N.S., at about 2.30 p.m. Sunday and rolled into a ditch.

Eighteen of the 21 people on the bus were treated at various hospitals for minor injuries.

Executive Coach promises to help victims

RCMP said the bus belongs to Executive Coach, based inLancaster, Pa. All passengers were American, between the ages of 70 and 80 years old, except for one woman who was travelling with her mother.

The person who died was atthe Sydney hospital.

Another person remains in serious but stable condition in a Sydney hospital, while a third person who was reported to be in serious but stable condition was transferred to a Halifax hospital.

Dale McMichael, vice-president of Executive Coach Inc., said the company based in Lancaster, Pa., was working closely with police to determine what happened.

"Safety has always been and continues to be our top priority," McMichael said in a statement. "While we cannot change what happened, we pledge our assistance to the family of the victim and survivors in the days and weeks ahead."

The fire chief in Neils Harboursaid the incident put a strain on local emergency and medical resources.

As a result, skilled volunteers such asRebecca Doucette were welcomed at the scene.

'Screaming and crying'

Doucette, a nurse who lives in Saskatchewan, was home in Cape Breton for her upcoming wedding and was at the scene about half an hour after the crash.

Some were screaming and crying. I said to my family, its surprising, like when something like that happens how people can still joke with you. I mean, through their tears and sadness and everything thats going on. People were on spine boards in the road, some people were up walking around who still needed help, needed to get on spine boards everyone was pretty shaken up, she said.

Doucette said she has been thinking about the elderly people she helped.

It just hits you how scary this must be for them to be out of the country, all their belongings all in one place,stuck on a bus. Probably their passports, most important stuff. Like how scary of a feeling that must be and now youre on a spine board in the middle of the road, she said.

Dr. Andrew Lynk, associate vice-president of medicine with the Cape Breton District Health Authority,was at his cottage in nearbyIngonish when he heard about the crash.

I dropped what I was doing, and there are about four of five docs that have cottages in the area So I did the network thing and in about 15 or 20 minutes, we all arrived, he said.

I must say, Im so proud of the staff up there. Its just a fantastic hospital and the staff are dedicated and very skilled.

In a strange coincidence, Lynk said the health authority had a disaster planning exercise on this very scenario about a month and a half ago.

I said what would happen, guys, if a bus went over and we had mass casualties? When was the last time we did an exercise? And it was a year or two ago. I said well we should do another one, he said.

Lynk said the exercise helped with preparing the CBDHA for communicating better during a disaster such as the bus rollover.

Police are still investigating.