Several people injured after bus rolls into river

A bus overturned and rolled into a river in Saurbær, Skagafjörður, southwest Iceland, at around 14:30 yesterday. Thirteen passangers, all tourists, were on board the bus. No one is in critical condition, but several people have serious injuries and others have smaller injuries.

This is confirmed by Svavar Atli Birgisson, fire chief of Fire Department in Skagafjörður, in a conversation with mbl.is.

All passengers were already off the bus by the time the Fire Department arrived. A local civil protection response has been activated. A mass assistance station was opened in Varmahlíð, rescue teams from Varmahlíð and Sauðárkrókur were called out, and police and ambulances arrived from Sauðárkrókur and Blönduós.

Birgisson said the operations had gone well, luggage and all the stuff from the bus were taken, but then they went to work straightening the bus and trying to get it out of the river. He expected operations to last until dawn.

The injured have been evacuated from the scene, according to mbl.is, and others have been being tended to at the mass-relief center.

No one in critical condition

Six people were taken by ambulance to the hospital in Akureyri, after a bus rolled into the river Húseyjarvíkvísl yesterday. In total fifteen people were on board the bus.

The rest of the passengers were taken to the hospital by rescue vehicles, where everyone underwent medical examinations. No one is in critical condition, according to Chief Inspector Höskuldur B. Erlingsson, of the Police Service of North Iceland, while about eight people suffered injuries of some kind.

“There are some broken bones and sprains. Those that can certainly be serious in themselves, but at least I don’t know that anyone is in danger,” Erlingsson said.

Tourists from the United States

The passengers of the bus were mostly tourists from the United States, but besides that, a driver and a tour guide were also on board. A first aid station was opened at the Varmahlíð Air Rescue Station and first aid was administered. Erlingsson says that the people were alarmed and that a crisis was being treated on the spot.

What caused the accident is still unknown, but Erlingsson says the investigation is ongoing, with the Safety Investigation Authority (SIA-Iceland) investigative committee expected to investigate the scene.

Work started yesterday to try to extract the bus from the river. The river is deep in sections, but it was not very deep where the bus fell. The bus hit its right side and the river reached the middle of the side of the bus.

Erlingsson said that no windows had to be broken to get people out and that some people were able to get out themselves, before responders arrived.

Bus was extracted from the river today

The bus was extracted from the river Húseyjarkvísl today according to inspector Friðrik Hreinsson, of the Northwest Iceland Police.

"It was recovered from the water by contractors after the investigation was completed at the scene."

Hreinsson says the circumstances of the accident are not clear and that an investigation will reveal this.

"SIA-Iceland completed its work last night but there are no results from that investigation yet."