About 20 hurt in shuttle bus crash near Mackenzie, B.C.

About 20 people and the driver were taken to hospital Wednesday after a shuttle bus crashed into a ditch on Highway 39 south of Mackenzie, B.C., with injuries ranging from minor to serious, police said.

The B.C. RCMP Highway Patrol said the crash happened shortly after 9 a.m. PT, about four kilometres south of the community, which is roughly 160 kilometres north of Prince George. Police said the cause is unclear and “nothing has been ruled out.”

“This was a chaotic scene, and police will need time to sort out many of the details,” Sgt. Michael McLaughlin of the Highway Patrol said in a release. No one has been arrested, and police are asking anyone with dash camera video of the bus, or who saw what led up to the crash, to contact them.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said one person was flown directly from the scene to hospital in serious condition. Six others were taken by ambulance to hospital and then transferred by air ambulance to another facility, two of them in serious condition and four in serious but stable condition. Another 13 people in stable condition were taken to hospital by bus with advanced care paramedics.

The ambulance service said it sent six ground ambulances and six air ambulances. The B.C. Coroners Service told CBC News it was not called to the scene.

Northern Health declared a code orange, the designation for a disaster or mass-casualty event, at Mackenzie and District Hospital and at University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George. The health authority later said the Mackenzie emergency department had resumed normal operations. People were asked to avoid emergency departments unless they faced a life-threatening emergency.

Australian company Iren, which operates a data centre in Mackenzie, said the bus was chartered by one of its contractors and carried workers associated with the site. “Our immediate concern is for everyone on board and their families,” spokesperson Matt Epting said in a statement, adding that the company is in close contact with the contractor, emergency responders and the RCMP.

Iren operates three data centres in B.C., in Mackenzie, Prince George and Canal Flats, and has been moving them from bitcoin mining to AI servers. It said in December that it employed 60 people full time between the Prince George and Mackenzie sites and planned to triple its workforce.

Highway 39 is the only highway in and out of Mackenzie. It was closed most of the day so ambulances could reach the scene and has reopened to single-lane alternating traffic, with delays expected, according to DriveBC. Mackenzie Secondary School said no school buses were involved and its students are safe.

Kiel Giddens, the MLA-elect for Prince George-Mackenzie, said in a social media post he was wishing everyone involved strength and a safe recovery.

This is a developing story and figures on the injured may change as police and health officials release more information. The information here comes from the RCMP, B.C. Emergency Health Services, Northern Health and Iren, as reported by CBC News.

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