One of four killed in Okanagan Connector bus crash identified
One of the passengers who died following the Christmas Eve bus crash on the Connector has been identified in social media.
Karanjot Singh Sodhi, 41, was one of four people who died in the single vehicle crash east of Merritt near the Loon Lake exit, while dozens of others were injured.
Friends have created an online fundraiser in memory of Sodhi who leaves behind his mother, wife and two young children, ages three and six.
READ MORE: Okanagan Connector bus crash was second in a week
Nearly $14,000 had been donated to the Sodhi family by Tuesday. According to the online fundraiser, Sodhi had arrived in Canada four months ago on a work permit.
Michaela Swan, a spokeswoman for the Interior Health Authority, says seven people who were brought to three hospitals after the bus rolled on Highway 97C on Saturday evening are still patients, down from eight on Sunday.
Two patients had been listed in serious condition on Sunday, but Swan said their conditions have since improved.
Swan says she doesn't have numbers on how many health-care staff were called in, but says many came in without being asked.
"What we did hear from the front line was just that initial heart-sinking feeling when you hear about this accident and the impacts to those potential patients and their families," Swan said. "It actually caused Interior health staff and physicians just to respond to the sites knowing you're going to need all hands on deck."
Interior Health implemented a Code Orange response — signalling a disaster or mass-casualty event — in the hours following the crash.
Police have said the road conditions were described "as very poor with ice and snow on the road surface along with rain and hail falling."
Investigators have asked anyone who witnessed the collision or who has dashcam video of the bus before the crash to please contact their local RCMP detachment.
Meanwhile, the company at the centre of the crash investigation, eBus based out of Alberta, posted on its Facebook page that it had to cancel all routes in B.C. on Boxing Day due to "deteriorating weather conditions." It said it would resume operations in B.C. on Wednesday.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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