{"id":514825,"date":"2026-03-05T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T00:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:32:10","slug":"daughter-seeking-answers-after-dominican-bus-crash-that-killed-mother-hospitalized-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514825\/","title":{"rendered":"Daughter seeking answers after Dominican bus crash that killed mother, hospitalized father"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Manitoba\u2019s Colleen Fullerton was killed in a bus accident in the Dominican Republic Sunday night that left her husband, John, in hospital and in need of spinal surgery.HO\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The daughter of a Canadian woman killed in a bus crash in the Dominican Republic says her family is still searching for answers three days after the incident that left another Canadian dead and 13 others injured.<\/p>\n

Amanda Fullerton of Lockport, Man., said her mother, Colleen Fullerton, was killed in the Sunday evening crash and her father, John Fullerton, is in hospital. <\/p>\n

Fullerton said she hasn\u2019t been able to get in contact with her father and is calling on Canadian consular officials to send a representative to the hospital where he is being treated, as the family has received no official word about his condition.<\/p>\n

Vacationing Canadians can\u2019t escape the effects of Trump\u2019s policies<\/a><\/p>\n

A statement from the embassy posted on social media Monday said staff were providing consular assistance, but did not say how many Canadians were on the bus or what their status was. The embassy said any Canadians needing assistance should contact the emergency watch and response centre.<\/p>\n

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson J\u00e9r\u00e9mie B\u00e9rub\u00e9 said Tuesday no further details could be disclosed about the accident. <\/p>\n

Fullerton said she first learned of the crash from her uncle, who had been travelling with her parents at the time and who was also hospitalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe phoned and he was crying and he was talking really slow like he had got hit in the mouth,\u201d Fullerton said in an interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said all he knew was that my dad was covered in blood and my mom was unconscious and he kept going, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m so sorry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was hours of trying to get in touch with Canadian consular officials and hospitals in the Dominican Republic \u2013 anyone who could possibly get information on her parents, Fullerton said. <\/p>\n

The official notification of her mother\u2019s death came from the RCMP on Monday afternoon, she said, but at that point the family had already seen her mother\u2019s name published in Dominican media reports. <\/p>\n

Now, Fullerton wants to know why it took Canadian officials so long to contact her, and why no one has given her official word about her father\u2019s condition. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy wasn\u2019t I notified? I shouldn\u2019t have to learn from foreign media,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve lost my mom and now I need to have eyes on my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fullerton said her uncle has told her that her father is expected to undergo spinal surgery soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I know is that he wasn\u2019t stable for surgery because of swelling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fullerton said her parents were \u201chappiest\u201d when travelling, describing the pair as avid adventurers who regularly took two vacations a year.<\/p>\n

Her parents had initially planned to travel to Cuba in February, but changed their destination last minute to the Dominican Republic, she said. Global Affairs Canada has warned Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to Cuba, where a U.S. oil blockade has triggered a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

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Fullerton said her mother was the \u201cworld\u2019s best baker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe baked us all this food (before the trip) \u2026 There\u2019s homemade cookies and I\u2019m afraid to take them out because they\u2019re going to be the only ones we get,\u201d she said through tears. <\/p>\n

Her father works as a mechanic at his own garage, and Fullerton is concerned he won\u2019t be able to work again if he undergoes spinal surgery. <\/p>\n

Fullerton said the family has contacted a lawyer as they seek answers about the cause of the crash. <\/p>\n

Sunwing said in a statement the bus that crashed was operated by one of its third-party providers transferring guests from Punta Cana International Airport to hotels via NexusTours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do all that we can to minimize the risk of something like this happening in the future,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Local authorities have said the bus slid across a road in the tourist area of La Romana, about an hour\u2019s drive west of the popular resort area of Punta Cana and east of the capital, Santo Domingo. They said the 13 injured were between the ages of 37 and 72.<\/p>\n

The Dominican Republic has one of the world\u2019s highest traffic fatality rates, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

Fullerton said Sunwing has agreed to pay for costs associated with bringing her mother\u2019s remains back to Canada, as well as the cost of her father\u2019s medical treatment. <\/p>\n

Sunwing confirmed to The Canadian Press that all expenses related to medical treatment for injured Canadians and the repatriation of remains will be covered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Manitoba\u2019s Colleen Fullerton was killed in a bus accident in the Dominican Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-514825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}