Thirty-three Canadians are scheduled to be back in Canada Monday evening, following a weekend bus crash in Switzerland that killed a married Ontario couple and injured 31 others.
Thirteen of their travelling companions, however, will remain hospitalized in Switzerland. Doctors expected to release six patients by Monday, but decided to keep them longer.
"All the patients are going to have to stay at least another day or two," said hospital spokeswoman Dr. Nicole Bayard Carron. "They’re still sick. They still need hospital care."
Those who had been discharged from hospital or who hadn’t suffered injury left the hotel where they stayed Sunday night in Montreux, Switzerland, and started to make their ways back to Canada, police spokesman Markus Rieder said Monday.
"They all left to Geneva today, and from there they will travel to Canada," he said.
The bus was transporting 48 Ontario seniors travelling to Seefeld, Austria from Brig, Switzerland when it swerved off a road and crashed Saturday near the town of Reckingen in the Swiss Alps.
The crash sent 28 people to several hospitals, where they were treated, Carron said.
Police said the names and hometowns of the deceased will not been released, but the families of the 71-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife had been contacted.
Although police have received several witness reports, the cause of the accident remains unclear, Rieder said. On Sunday, police were speculating the 73-year-old German bus driver, who was not injured, may have become distracted by a passing motorcyclist.
The retirees were in Europe to take in the world-famous Oberammergau Passion Play, which is held once every 10 years, in the German state of Bavaria.
The tour operator is based in Cornwall, Ont., where many of the passengers live. Others were from Martintown, Ont., just north of the eastern Ontario city.
Kimberly Walsh, who lives in Cornwall and whose mother was on the bus, said there was speculation the deceased couple lived in Martintown. At least six of the passengers were members of the Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall.
Father Claude Thibault of Cornwall’s Blessed Sacrament church said four of his parishioners were on the trip, all of whom were accounted for. He said he had heard the married couple was from Brockville, Ont., about 100 kilometres west of Cornwall.
The bishop of the diocese said news of the accident has been hard on his parishioners.
"Every one here is basically waiting to find out who died in the accident," said Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher.
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