MONTREAL, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Quebec police Thursday were trying to determine what caused a head-on collision between a school bus and a loaded van that killed four people.
Provincial police said the van carrying eight men veered into the path of the bus carrying 13 students Wednesday morning in a rural area about 40 miles northeast of Montreal.
Nearby residents rushed to the scene and told CTV News three men in the van were obviously dead. Police said the other five were severely injured and one later died in a hospital. A fifth man died in a Montreal hospital Thursday morning, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said.
The bus driver and two students were taken to a hospital, treated for minor injuries and released, The (Montreal) Gazette reported.
The crash happened in a 50 mph zone where a pair of two-lane highways intersect near the town of Ste. Genevieve de Berthier.
Road conditions were ruled out as a cause for the crash although police said the men in the van were night workers on their way home and the driver may have been too tired to drive, or asleep, when he crossed the center line, CTV said.
School officials were arranging for trauma counseling for the students on the bus, as well as their parents, the reports said.
