The driver of a bus chartered to take young people on a ski trip died and at least 16 passengers were injured when the bus rear-ended a transport truck in a blizzard Sunday morning, about 150 kilometres west of Edmonton.

Driving conditions were poor when the accident happened around 7:45 a.m. MT, near the small community of Niton Junction, Alta., RCMP Const. Dion Barry said.

One person was killed and at least 16 more were hurt early Sunday when a tour bus carrying a party of skiers slammed into the back of a transport truck on a snowy highway near the town of Edson, west of Edmonton.
(CBC)

"There was blowing snow across the road with certain icy patches and snowbanks along the roadway," he added.

Police said the Golden Arrow Motor Coaches bus slammed into a loaded flat-bed truck that was carrying pipes on Highway 16. The male driver died instantly at the scene of the accident and the Jaws of Life was used to remove several of the 44 passengers from the wreckage, Barry said.

Those on board the bus ranged between the ages of eight and 60 from an Edmonton taekwondo club who were heading to Jasper, Alta., on a ski trip.

Among the injured, five people were airlifted to hospitals in Edmonton and two were listed in critical or serious condition, hospital officials said.

Emergery workers and investigators work at the scene of a bus crash on Sunday in Niton Junction, Alta.
(Victoria Carnaghan/Canadian Press)

Eleven of the injured who were taken to a local Edson hospital suffered fractures and cuts, and all but three were later discharged, said Lana Hataley of the Edson and District Hospital. Those three were to arrive in Edmonton hospitals by evening, hospital officials said.

Edson is located about halfway between Edmonton and Jasper National Park.

Passengers who escaped injury were taken to a hotel in Edson and another Golden Arrow bus drove them to Edmonton.

The cause of the accident was still being investigated by police Sunday evening. They remained at the scene examining the skid marks.

"We don't have any information at this point to say if it [the transport truck] was stopped or moving slow," said Jack Ramme, director of disaster services for Yellowhead County.

Edmonton-based Golden Arrow declined to comment until Monday.

With files from the Canadian Press