Still unknown if pedestrian killed near B.C. school bus crash was rushing to help

The investigation into a school bus crash on Highway 97 in B.C.’s Cariboo region Friday afternoon continues.

B.C. Highway Patrol said it has still not yet been determined what led to the pedestrian’s death soon after the bus crash in the same location.

In an email to Global News, officers said witnesses at the scene told them the pedestrian was crossing the road to help but they have not yet been able to determine that was the case.

Investigators are still looking for pre-collision driving behaviour for both incidents.

2:44 Pedestrian killed in school bus crash in the Cariboo

School District 27 superintendent Chris van der Mark told Global News on Saturday that the students on the bus were in grades 6 and 7 from 100 Mile Elementary and Horse Lake Elementary schools.

The school group was returning from an overnight field trip at Gavin Lake when the bus went off the highway down an embankment. There were 31 students and four adults on the bus.

In all, 36 people were treated for injuries, with 17 taken to the hospital via air ambulance and ground ambulance plus any passengers with minor injuries who may have been driven to the hospital by family members.

B.C. Highway Patrol said that there have been no further fatalities in connection with the bus crash.

1:40 Crash involving school bus shuts down B.C.’s Highway 97

— with files from Darrian Matassa-Fung and Troy Charles