Child dies, 17 injured after school bus crashes near U.S. border

A young cadet was killed in Sainte-Rose-de-Watford, Que. after a school bus crashed. Seventeen others, including the bus driver, were injured.

A child has died, and 17 others were injured after a school bus crashed in a small Quebec town near the U.S. border.

Quebec provincial police (SQ) confirmed on Saturday at around noon that the student, who was in critical condition, died and that four of the injured students sustained serious injuries in the crash. The bus driver was among the injured.

None of those injuries is life-threatening, police say.

The children were members of the Canadian Cadets program.

“We are deeply saddened by the road accident that occurred this morning in Sainte-Rose-de-Watford, Quebec,” the Cadets du Canada said on their Facebook page. “Ensuring cadets, staff and their families the necessary support is our top priority. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic accident.”

Canadian Armed Forces spokesperson Captain Stéphanie Belleau said the cadets were from several cadet corps in the Beauce region.

“The cadets had left Sainte-Marie for an air rifle precision shooting competition to be held in Sainte-Justine, Beauce,” he told Noovo Info. “Out of concern for the well-being and mental health of all those involved, this event was immediately cancelled following the incident.”

Belleau said that resources were mobilized to support the cadets, staff and families.

SQ spokesperson Frédéric Deshaies said that the bus swerved off the road at around 8:30 a.m. in Sainte-Rose-de-Watford, a town with a population of 737 in Quebec’s Chaudière-Appalaches region, an hour-and-a-half south of Quebec City.

Officers arrived to find the bus overturned on the side of the road.

Police say icy road conditions in the area may have been a factor in the crash.

Prime Minister Mark Carney posted about the tragedy on X.

“My thoughts are with all those affected by the horrible bus crash that took the life of a cadet in Sainte-Rose-de-Watford, Québec,” Carney wrote. “Thank you to all the first responders who rushed to the scene and continue to care for the injured. We wish them a full recovery.”

Beauce-Sud MNA Samuel Poulin served as a cadet and posted his sympathies.

“Our community is tightly knit, much like the cadet corps of Chaudière-Appalaches,” he said. “It is driven by strong values of solidarity and commitment. Events like this one touch us all deeply.”

The municipality of Sainte-Rose-de-Watford is located near the Canada-U.S. border, 35 kilometres from Saint-Georges.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault also posted his sympathies on social media on Saturday, thanking emergency services for their efforts.

“I am wholeheartedly with the loved ones of the young victim who passed away today in the overturning of a school bus in Chaudière-Appalaches,” he wrote on X. “I also have a thought for the young injured cadets and the entire Sainte-Rose-de-Watford community.”

CAQ leadership hopeful Christine Fréchette added that the province “stands with you” in “solidarity, compassion and support.”

“My thoughts are with the children who experienced this harrowing event this morning, as well as their loved ones and the first responders who are enduring hours of immense anguish,” she wrote on social media.

--With files from the Canadian Press.