The scene in northeastern Mexico after a bus-truck crash that killed 11 people, including three Canadians. (www.vanguardia.com.mx)

A Mexican truck driver faces charges of involuntary manslaughter in a crash that left three Canadian tourists dead and four recovering from injuries, police say.

The trucker, who survived with serious injuries when his tractor-trailer rig struck a tour bus on Monday, was intoxicated, said Jose Angel Herrera, a federal homicide detective in Coahuila state in northeastern Mexico.

Robert Lacas of Quebec City was killed. His wife, Line Carrier, said from hospital that she remembers nothing of the crash. (Family photo)

He is in police custody in hospital and will be charged with involuntary homicide, Herrera told the Associated Press. Prosecutors said urine tests indicated that Julio Cesar Garcia, 23, may have consumed four to five beers before the crash.

Eleven people were killed in the crash, including Robert Lacas, 56, of Quebec City, Carolyn Kowaleski, 64, of Caledonia, Ont., and Marilyn Jackson, 67, of Vancouver.

Among the 16 injured are Lacas's wife, Line Carrier; Kowaleski's husband, Randy, and a couple from Burlington, Ont., Karen and Jim Lait.

The crash occurred on a two-lane highway southwest of Monterrey as the bus travelled from McAllen, Texas, carrying about two dozen tourists from Canada and the United States — many of them retirees — toward Zacatecas in north-central Mexico.

Carolyn and Randy Kowaleski of Caledonia, Ont., were on vacation in the United States with a side trip into Mexico. (Courtesy of Kowaleski family)

The dead Quebec man, Robert Lacas, had been travelling in the southern United States with his wife when they decided to take a four-day side trip to Mexico on a bus tour that began Monday morning, their son, Christian Poulin, told Radio-Canada.

"They were happy. They smiled all the time," he said. "They were a perfect couple. They worked hard all of their lives."

Reached by the Canadian Press at Hospital Magisterio in Saltillo, Carrier, 55, declined to talk about the accident and said she was being attended to by several nurses.

"In any event, I have no recollection about what happened," she said.

Marilyn Jackson of Vancouver died in the crash. (Family photo)

Jean-Luc Morin, who worked with Lacas for 14 years, said Carrier retired last September and the couple left home in October

"They bought a recreational vehicle together last year and they wanted to take a trip to the southern United States — Louisiana, New Orleans, Florida, Texas, Gulf of Mexico," he told the Canadian Press. "They wanted to do it in six months."

Lacas worked more than 20 years with the Quebec Centre for Industrial Research (CRIQ) before starting his own consulting company in 2002, and also spent time with a number of other government agencies, working in the fields of chemistry and nanotechnology, Morin said.

While they travelled, Lacas continued working with clients through the internet from his "homeless office" in the RV, he said.

James Lait has a broken rib, punctured lung and broken arm. Karen Lait has a broken nose. (Family photo)

Carolyn Kowaleski's 64-year-old husband Randy was in intensive care at Hospital de la Concepcion, where spokewoman Kyra Duerta said he was listed in stable condition.

"We are extremely saddened and heartbroken by the news, but we also need to pray for Randy as he remains in intensive care in hospital," Kowaleski's family said in a statement.

The couple, who moved to the Caledonia area two years ago from Stoney Creek, Ont., have been married 48 years and have four children and 12 grand children, the statement said.

They were on a vacation in the United States with a side trip into Mexico.

The Laits, friends of the Kowaleskis, were in stable condition at Hospital Muguerza.

(CBC)

Karen Lait, 58, has a broken nose and her 60-year-old husband a broken rib, a punctured lung, and a broken arm, their son, Alex Lait, told CBC News.

"I was trying to brace myself for hearing that they were dead — I'm very thankful that that wasn't the case," he said.

Reached in hospital, Karen Lait said she and her husband are being well taken care of.

She hasn't been able to speak to him since they called out to each other in the hallway before he went into surgery.

Sher said she doesn't remember the crash but called it a random accident that will not deter her from similar trips in the future.

With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press