One of three Manitoba high school students airlifted to Winnipeg after the school bus she was travelling in slid off the highway and rolled multiple times says she thought she was dreaming.
Drayah Maytwayashing was asleep when the bus slid while trying to pass another bus amid icy conditions on Highway 10 just south of Mafeking Tuesday morning.
“I opened my eyes. We were swerving so bad, and we went into the ditch,” the 17-year-old said in an interview in Winnipeg on Wednesday, after she was released from hospital.
“I blacked out. I don’t really remember … and I woke up on the other side of the bus, screaming, on a different seat. I woke up all bloody, and I have a big gash on my forehead.”
Maytwayashing, her brother Drayden Genaille and cousin Michelle Chartrand — all from Sapotaweyak Cree Nation — were among 15 people, including the school bus driver, on the bus.
In addition to the gash on her head, Maytwayashing sustained two small fractures to her pelvis. Genaille was discharged from the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg Tuesday night, and Maytwayashing and Chartrand were released Wednesday.
Four of those injured in the rollover suffered “significant but non-life-threatening injuries,” RCMP said Tuesday.
Several other students were treated for injuries at the scene and taken to Swan Valley Health Centre in the town of Swan River, about 380 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
One patient is expected to remain at Swan Valley Health Centre in stable condition, health officials said in a Wednesday news release.
While it was initially reported on Tuesday that four patients were transferred to Health Sciences Centre, further assessment confirmed only three transfers were required, the update from Shared Health and Prairie Mountain Health said.
Both Genaille and Chartrand were looking forward to hanging out with their friends at lunch Tuesday at Swan Valley Regional Secondary School in Swan River, where they’re taking hairstyling classes.
“I wasn’t really worried about myself,” Genaille, 16, told CBC. “I was more worried about my sister.”
He’s sore after being ejected out one of the bus’s windows, he said.
“When I woke up I was in the snow, and I just jumped up and ran to the road,” he said.
Chartrand, who was also sleeping when the bus veered off the road, was thrown from the bus as well.
“I didn’t really know what was going on. The bus was just rolling, and I think I maybe lost consciousness, because I don’t remember much besides just ending up outside the bus,” she said.
The 15-year-old said her initial thoughts in the aftermath were about trying to get up, but she couldn’t.
“I was ejected out of the bus through one of the windows … and I had [paramedics] take me out of the snow because I couldn’t get up,” Chartrand said.
‘Couldn’t calm down’
Maytwayashing and Genaille’s grandmother, Tracey Campeau, was getting ready to leave for work when her daughter rushed into her Sapotaweyak home and told her about the crash.
The drive to see her injured family members was mentally taxing, because she didn’t know what to expect. Campeau had another granddaughter on the bus, too.
“I couldn’t calm down or anything. It just happened all so fast, and it just felt like a long time to get to the accident, because I was only going about 60-70 [km/h] all the way,” Campeau said.
She’s had two other family members who were previously involved in vehicle crashes, and is grateful that Maytwayashing, Genaille and Chartrand are alive and expected to make full recoveries.
Campeau says she would also like to see seatbelts installed on school buses in Manitoba.
“I would like to see [seatbelts], because the way that bus looked was a sight to see,” she said.
Photos circulating on social media showed a yellow bus tilted in the snow with a crumpled front end, shattered side windows and an open back door.
Campeau says all three kids love school and are determined to graduate high school, including Maytwayashing later this year.
“They enjoy getting up every day to get on that bus, but right now they’re traumatized, and they don’t know if they want to get on that bus again,” Campeau said. “Hopefully they do.”
They’re all planning to drive home on Friday.
RCMP say their investigation is continuing and there is no word yet on whether charges may be laid.
Officers “have been and will be conducting interviews with involved parties and witnesses,” Manitoba RCMP said in a written statement Wednesday.
A traffic reconstructionist travelled to the scene on Tuesday, “which will further help us determine whether charges or a provincial offence notice are appropriate in this incident,” RCMP said, adding “a Crown opinion will also be sought.”
Eight first responders from the Birch River fire department were the first at the scene of a Tuesday morning school bus rollover in western Manitoba, arriving within 10 minutes of the 911 call, officials say. The bus was carrying 14 students from Sapotaweyak Cree Nation when it rolled over. The chief of the First Nation says he’s now focused on providing counselling for those affected by the crash.
