(Wolseley) Members of the Shania Twain concert production team were on board a bus that was involved in a crash Wednesday on an icy highway in southeastern Saskatchewan.
The popular singer’s management company, Maverick, said in a statement that her Queen of Me tour bus and truck were involved in an accident on the Trans-Canada Highway near Wolseley.
She says the vehicles were traveling between Winnipeg, where Shania Twain had a show Tuesday night, and Saskatoon.
The singer was not on the bus.
The team members were traveling from Winnipeg, where the artist performed Tuesday evening, to Saskatoon, where she was scheduled to perform Thursday.
Dwayne Stone, fire chief of the nearby town of Grenfell, said firefighters were called to the scene of the accident shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Roads were extremely slippery after rain and snow passed through the area.
Stone said firefighters found the bus overturned on its side. There was a loss of control before the vehicle ended up in the ditch.
The double-decker bus was arranged so passengers could sleep on the upper level, Stone said.
He said firefighters used an escape hatch on the roof of the bus and removed the windows to gain access to the 13 people trapped inside.
“When the bus overturned, all the debris trapped people inside,” Stone said. We actually had to go in, carefully remove things to be able to free people. »
He said the people were taken to a nearby hospital and none of their injuries were life-threatening.
Mr. Stone said the bus had a Tennessee license plate and was operated by a touring company headquartered in Florida called Beat The Street. The company, which provides buses to touring bands and teams, confirmed that its vehicle was involved in the accident.
When the bus rolled over, Mr Stone believes many passengers were sleeping because they “only had their socks on and no coats”. “We had to give them blankets to keep them warm. »
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police closed the highway from Wolseley, 100 kilometers east of Regina, to the Manitoba border due to icy conditions for several hours.
According to Mr. Stone, firefighters also responded to two semi-trailers jackknifed on the highway that morning.
