BC RCMP say a 67-year-old man from the Cariboo region was killed in Friday’s school bus crash near Lac La Hache that sent several people to hospital with varying injuries.

While witnesses on scene say the man was killed while trying to cross the highway, police tell Radio NL they’re still investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.

“It taking quite some time as a lot of people are injured, and traumatized by this crash,” BC Highway Patrol spokesperson Cpl. Melissa Jongema said, “We also need to have respect for the friends and family of the man as well. We’ll have an update at a later time and we’ll release it when its ready.”

Jongema says while impairment has already been ruled out, it will take months for investigators to determine why the school bus – which was carrying people back from a field trip in the Williams Lake area – went down a 50-foot embankment on Friday afternoon.

“We need experts to come in, we need mechanical inspections, we need warrants to be written for those vehicles to try to understand if there were mechanical problems,” Jongema said, noting the vehicles involved are being stored “in a secure place.”

“We need to watch hours and hours and hours of surveillance. We need to talk to probably 40 to 50 people and take statements. Also we’re working with outside agencies who are doing their own investigation as well.”

Jongema says police are also making arrangements to return things that were on the bus to their rightful owners.

“They can contact the 100 Mile House RCMP if they’re looking have something returned to them,” Jongema said. “They’ll have to describe what they had on the bus. There probably would have been dozens of bags, purses, backpacks, items, water bottles. It’s a high volume of things.”

People with information or video about the crash to contact the BC Highway Patrol’s 100 Mile House office at 250-395-2456 and reference file 2024-2050.