Global InformationList of deadliest Canadian traffic accidents information
A list of Canadian traffic accidents, with multiple fatalities. The list includes notable accidents with at least five fatalities.
| Accident | Date | Location | Killed | Description | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Les Éboulements bus accident | 13 October 1997 | Les Éboulements, Quebec | 44 | Canada's deadliest traffic accident occurred in Les Eboulements, Quebec, after a bus transporting a group of seniors suffered brake failure and careened down an embankment into a ravine, killing 43 on board including the driver. Fatigue and maintenance were found to be contributing factors in the crash. | [1] |
| Eastman bus crash | 4 August 1978 | Eastman, Quebec | 40 | a bus carrying physically and mentally handicap people, plus volunteers, suffered brake failure while coming down a steep hill and plunged into Lac d’Argent in Eastman, Quebec, killing 40 on board. The group had been out for a night at the theater and was returning when the tragedy occurred. The bus floated for approximately 15 minutes before sinking. Only seven passengers survived. | [2] |
| CP Rail crew bus crash | 28 May 1980 | Webb, Saskatchewan | 22 | Saskatchewan's deadliest traffic accident occurred when 22 workers on a Canadian Pacific Railway steel crew were killed after their bus collided with another vehicle on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Regina. The bus flipped onto its side and was then struck from behind by a tanker truck loaded with liquid asphalt. | [3] |
| Dorion level crossing accident | 7 October
1966 |
Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec | 21 | a school bus transporting children to a school dance was hit by a CN Rail freight train in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, killing 19 instantly with 2 dying later from injuries. | [4] |
| Colonial Coach Lines bus accident | 31 July 1953 | Morrisburg, Ontario | 20 | Ontario's deadliest traffic accident occurred when 20 people were killed after their Colonial Coach Lines passenger bus collided with a truck parked on the side of Highway 2 near Morrisburg, Ontario. The bus careened off the highway and into the Williamsburg canal system. Seventeen survivors escaped from the bus as it sank in about six metres of water. | [5] |
| Accident at Lac-Bouchette | 17 July 1993 | Lac-Bouchette, Quebec | 19 | a minibus carrying senior citizens from Verchères, Quebec and Contrecoeur, Quebec were returning from a pilgrimage to the shrine of le Ermitage Saint-Antoine near La Bouchette when the minibus they were travelling in collided with a van, killing 19 people. | [6] |
| Chipman-Lamont school bus-train collision | 29 November
1960 |
Chipman, Alberta | 17 | Alberta's deadliest traffic accident occurred when 17 high schoolers from the town of Chipman, Alberta were killed after their school bus was hit by a train near Lamont, Alberta. An additional 25 people were injured. | [7] |
| Carberry highway collision | 15 June 2023 | North Cypress-Langford, Manitoba | 17 | Manitoba's deadliest traffic accident occurred during a vehicle collision between a handi-transit bus and a semi-truck on the Trans-Canada Highway in the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford near Carberry, Manitoba, Canada, killing 17 seniors and injuring 8 others. | [8] |
| Humboldt Broncos bus crash | 6 April 2018 | Armley, Saskatchewan | 16 | 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos, a Saskatchewan junior hockey team, died when their team bus was struck on the side by a transport truck while crossing an intersection near Armley, Saskatchewan, Canada . The dead included the driver of the bus, 10 players, as well as coaches and other team assistants. | [9] |
| Yamachiche bus collision | 30 January 1954 | Yamachiche, Quebec | 14 | 14 people were killed on the highway at Yamachiche, Quebec, near Trois-Rivières, when their bus collided with an oncoming transport truck. A few of the passengers, as well as the drivers of both vehicles, managed to escape the inferno that engulfed the vehicles after the crash. | [10] |
| Les Eboulements bus crash | 2 June 1974 | Les Eboulements, Quebec | 13 | 13 seniors were killed when the bus they were travelling in lost control and crashed down and embankment in Les Eboulements, Quebec, eerily similar to the 1997 Les Éboulements Bus Accident 23 years later at the same location | [11] |
| Cormier-Village hayride accident | 8 October 1989 | Cormier Village, New Brunswick | 13 | New Brunswick's deadliest traffic accident occurred when 13 people died and 45 others were injured during a family reunion hayride near Cormier Village, New Brunswick, northeast of Moncton. The victims were sitting in a hay wagon pulled by a tractor, when a passing logging truck lost control on the road, and its load of logs crashed down onto the wagon. 5 children were among the victims. | [12] |
| Sainte-Rosalie bus crash | 9 June 1979 | Sainte-Rosalie, Quebec | 11 | a bus carrying seniors lost control during a rainstorm and crashed into an overpass near Sainte-Rosalie, Quebec killing 11 seniors and injuring another 20. | [13] |
| Hampstead crash | 6 February 2012 | Hampstead, Ontario | 11 | 11 people were killed in Hampstead, Ontario, west of Kitchener, when a flatbed truck struck a minivan filled with migrant workers from a nearby poultry farm. The drivers of both vehicles died, as well as nine farm workers. | [14] |
| Go Train/TTC bus crash | 12 December 1975 | Scarborough, Ontario | 10 | a GO Transit Train slammed into a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus containing 50 passengers, including the driver, after the bus stalled at a level crossing at St. Clair Avenue and Kennedy Road in Scarborough, killing 10 and injuring a further 20. | [15] |
| Lantzville bus crash | 3 September 1977 | Lantzville, British Columbia | 10 | British Columbia's deadliest traffic accident occurred on Labour Day weekend, when a 3 vehicle accident involving 2 trucks and bus occurred near Lantzville, BC, resulting in the death of 10 individuals. | [16] |
| Oldcastle school bus accident | 21 December 1966 | Oldcastle, Ontario | 8 | a 35-tonne dump truck carrying a load of sand overturned at an intersection onto a school bus full of children near Oldcastle, ON. Tragically, 8 children between the ages of 6 and 9 lost their lives, a further 16 others were sustained injuries. | [17] |
| Ontario Highway 401 crash | 3 September 1999 | Tilbury, Ontario | 8 | Canada's deadliest multiple-vehicle collision resulted from dense fog conditions on a section of Ontario Highway 401 between Windsor and Tilbury. There were 87 vehicles involved in the pile-up in both directions of the divided highway, killing 8 people and injuring a further 45. | [18] |
| La tragédie de Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Nicolet | 16 March 2000 | Nicolet, Quebec | 8 | a van carrying 10 daycare children collided with another vehicle near Nicolet, QC, after losing control on some black ice. Tragically, 8 children were killed in the accident. | [19] |
| Bathurst boys in red accident | 12 January 2008 | Bathurst, New Brunswick | 8 | a semi-trailer truck and a van carrying the basketball team from Bathurst High School collided, which killed 7 students, the wife of the coach, and injured 4 other occupants in the van. | [20] |
| Highway 97 collision | ? March 1988 | Prince George, British Columbia | 6 | a principal and 5 students basketball players were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in swerved into the oncoming lane and struck a flatbed truck carrying power line poles, just north of Prince George, British Columbia. | [21] |
| Armley Corner collision | ? June 1997 | Armley, Saskatchewan | 6 | a family of 6 were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in collided with a transport truck at the intersection of highway 35 and 335 near Armley, Saskatchewan, the same intersection the Humboldt Broncos bus crash would take place 21 years later. | [22] |
| Rogers Pass crash | 27 November 2000 | Revelstoke, British Columbia | 6 | a bus carrying tourists from Taiwan crashed head-on with a transport truck in a tunnel on the Trans-Canada Highway, near Revelstoke, BC, killing six and injuring 21. The accident happened in the 316-metre Lanark Snowshed Tunnel, closing the highway for about 14 hours. The transport truck was empty at the time of the accident. | [23] |
| Lloydminster collision | 27 July 2013 | Lloydminster, Saskatchewan | 6 | 6 teenagers aged 14–17 were killed following a collision with a tanker truck at an intersection in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. | [24] |
| OC Transpo Bus-train crash | 8 September 2013 | Ottawa, Ontario | 6 | 6 people were killed after a collision occurred between an OC Transpo double-decker bus and a Via Rail train in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven. | [25] |
| Elrose collision | 29 June 2018 | Elrose, Saskatchewan | 6 | 6 people, including 3 children were killed when two vehicles collided on Highway 4, north of Elrose, Saskatchewan. | [26] |
| Sunwapta Falls collision | 8 August 2018 | Sunwapta Falls, Alberta | 6 | 6 people, were killed following a head-on crash near Jasper, Alberta, on Highway 93, south of Sunwapta Falls. Miraculously a 2 year old child survived the crash uninjured. | [27] |
| Barrie crash | 28 August 2022 | Barrie, Ontario | 6 | 6 young adults were killed in Barrie, Ontario, when the vehicle they were travelling in crashed into a large, deep concrete pit that had been dug out along the stretch of McKay Road under construction. | [28] |
| Embrum Highway 417 pileup | 17 February 2006 | Embrum, Ontario | 5 | Canada’s second deadliest multiple-vehicle collision involving 38 vehicles, occurred during a snow squall in whiteout conditions on highway 417 near Embrum Ontario, in the end 5 people were dead and many others injured. | [29] |
| De la Concorde overpass collapse | 30 September 2006 | Laval, Quebec | 5 | a 65 ft (20 m) section of a 3-lane overpass over Autoroute 19, in Laval, Quebec, collapsed, crushing two vehicles under it, killing 5 people and seriously injuring six others who went over the edge while travelling on the overpass. | [30] |
| Pacific Highway collision | 28 April 2013 | Surrey, BC | 5 | 3 generations of the same family were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in on the Pacific Highway was struck by a van at an intersection just north of the US border. A mother, her two children, their aunt and their grandmother were among the 5 killed. | [31] |
| Highway 401 collision | 12 March 2022 | Belleville, Ontario | 5 | 5 students from India were killed when a transport truck collided with the van they were travelling in, after it had come to a stop on the side of the 401 highway, just outside of Belleville, Ontario. | [32][33] |
| Highway 88 collision | 19 March 2023 | Northern Sunrise County, Alberta | 5 | 5 people were killed in a crash in Northern Alberta after a truck and van collided on Highway 88 in Northern Sunrise County. Both occupants of the truck were killed as well as 3 members of the Whitefish Lake First Nation who were travelling in the van. | [34] |
| Highway 83 crash | 31 September 2023 | Swan River, Manitoba | 5 | 5 people aged 25 to 42 died after the vehicle they were travelling in crashed on Highway 83, just north of Swan Lake, Manitoba. RCMP state that all 5 occupants were not wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the vehicle. All 5 occupants were pronounced dead on scene. | [35] |
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