Worker temporarily trapped after van hits daycare west of Edmonton

A woman in her 20s was trapped after a van crashed into the daycare where she was working on Thursday. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti has the story.

A daycare employee became trapped after a van drove into the side of the facility on Thursday.

Emergency crews were called to Young Champions Daycare on 48 Street in Stony Plain, Alta., at 10:55 a.m.

The building had been evacuated by the time emergency crews arrived and all 18 children were accounted for according to RCMP.

The Stony Plain Fire Department was called to conduct an emergency rescue operation involving one person, according to the Town of Stony Plain.

RCMP confirmed that the person who had to be rescued was the employee.

“She was in that room [where the van crashed] and a large amount of debris was laying on her from the collision, and the gas line had ruptured and was feeding into that room,” Insp. Kevin McGillivray of the Parkland RCMP detachment told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

“The fire department quickly did what they could to secure that room and extricated her in a timely manner.”

The woman, who is in her 20s, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

A spokesperson for the daycare said the employee was cooking when the crash happened.

“We’re all concerned about her,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

“I really can’t understand how she might have felt when everything fell upon her.”

Darren Buryniuk, whose outfitting business is next door to the daycare, said his children, ages one and three, were inside the daycare when it happened.

He didn’t hear the crash, he said, but a daycare employee rushed over and told him the kitchen roof had caved in and another worker was trapped.

“He was pretty frantic, as one could expect,” Buryniuk told The Canadian Press, adding he rushed over but could only get the kitchen door open a few centimetres.

“I could just see smoke coming out and smell the burning rubber. But luckily the (employee) was still conscious and could talk. And they weren’t OK, but they were still conscious. So that was good.”

McGillivray said the driver of the van, who is in his 30s, was also taken to hospital.

The building remained evacuated because of the gas leak.

As of 2:10 p.m. the gas leak had been resolved and all children had been picked up by their parents.

Buryniuk said his three-year-old daughter is still dealing with what happened.

“She’s asking the tough questions right now. Like, ‘Is the teacher gonna be OK?’” Buryniuk said, explaining that he doesn’t have a firm answer to give her.

“Well, it’s just to say I hope so.”

Anyone with dashcam or security video from the complex from where the daycare is located is asked to contact Parkland RCMP at 825-220-7267.

“Now that the scene is stable, we will continue our investigation into the collision, including the actions of the driver leading up to the incident,” McGillivray said.

Stony Plain is about 40 kilometres west of Edmonton.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti and The Canadian Press