Police try to identify victims of Canadian road crash that killed 15

It was Canada's deadliest traffic incident since 2018

Emergency workers and a medi-vac helicopter at the scene of the deadly accident in the town of Carberry, Manitoba. EPA

Police in the Canadian province of Manitoba on Friday were trying to identify the 15 people killed when a lorry and a bus collided in one of the country's worst recent road crashes.

Flags at the legislative building flew at half-staff to honour the victims of the collision, which occurred near the town of Carberry in south-western Manitoba, 170km west of Winnipeg.

The small white bus carrying 25 mostly elderly people was burnt to a shell. It had been heading to a casino when the accident happened.

Police said late on Thursday that they had yet to confirm the deaths with any of the next of kin.

“This is something we have to make sure we get right, it has to be accurate,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Rob Lasson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The victims were from the town of Dauphin, some 175km north of Carberry.

Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said it was “a tremendously difficult today, for sure”, given that no one knew who had been on the bus.

“There's just a sense of foreboding for everybody concerned,” he told the CBC. “We don't know what to do.”

The lorry was operated by the Day & Ross hauling company. In a statement, chairman William Doherty said the firm would be co-operating fully with the inquiry.

Ron Bretecher, whose parents were on the bus, told reporters his mother had survived the crash but his father was still unaccounted for.

“[My] family's just basically waiting for word … It's just very difficult,” he said.

Mr Lasson said police would also be looking at videos taken by passers-by and talking to witnesses. Both drivers survived the crash but have yet to speak to investigators.

The bus, heading south, was crossing the Trans-Canada motorway when it collided with the lorry, which was travelling east.

The crash was the worst in Canada since 16 people died in April 2018 when a lorry hit a bus transporting a junior hockey team on a rural road in neighbouring Saskatchewan.