Four female players from College Heights Secondary School in PG, along with an adult chaperone, are out of a Kamloops hospital following an accident near Cache Creek.
On Tuesday, the school’s Senior Girls volleyball team was on its way to Powell River for provincials when the 15-passenger van (carrying 12 people) they were in left the road and went into the ditch.
“The motor vehicle crash that occurred yesterday is being treated as a single-vehicle crash investigation and there are no charges pending at this time,” said Sgt. Kathleen Thain, Ashcroft RCMP.
The ordeal kept medical personnel within Interior Health on their toes for a few hours as the young athletes came into the facility to receive medical treatment.
“By the end of the afternoon, we saw nine patients in the emergency department at the Royal Inland Hospital and all nine patients were eventually discharged. We even had social workers on hand to provide support,” said Susan Duncan, Spokesperson.
School District 57 is breathing a sigh of relief following the recent news.
Superintendent Marilyn Marquis Forster says everyone involved has been reunited with family and the team will forego the tournament.
“We had families join them in Kamloops from Prince George, the whole group stayed in a hotel last evening in Kamloops and there are plans to travel back to Prince George today (Wednesday).”
A crash of this magnitude, albeit a minor one, upon further investigation can send everyone involved into a bit of a whirlwind.
“We’re always sobered when these things happen. We travel great distances in BC all the time without incident and when something happens as a citizen as a parent or a school district person we are very, very thankful that recovery is in place,” added Marquis-Forster.
The topic of sports teams travelling to games on buses remains a talking point not only in the province but also across Canada following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, which claimed the lives of 16 people and injuring 13 others back in April.
Marquis-Forster says while they are lucky the bus incident involving College Heights turned out to be minor, the aftereffects of the Broncos tragedy remains fresh in the minds of many offering instant flashbacks everytime a bus is involved in an accident.
“I think the Humboldt story touched the lives of all Canadians. If we’re not personally a parent we know young people, we have extended families and in Canada, our kids travel to play, we’re a sporting nation who believes in participation and we put kids on buses for sporting events, artistic events, the bands travel, choirs travel, artists travel and it’s a Canadian experience. I think the Humboldt tragedy touched all of us and made us all more aware of travel on roads.”
Police say the roads were clear at the time of the accident and are looking into what possibly obstructed the driver of the passenger bus that caused it to go off the road.