Police say a Hino box truck collided with a Correctional Service Canada minivan just before noon on Thursday at the intersection of Highway 13 and Highway 41, about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Prison officials have identified the two corrections officers and the female inmate killed in a crash at a rural highway intersection in central Alberta.
They say a Hino box truck collided with a Correctional Service Canada minivan that was transferring an inmate just before noon on Thursday at the intersection of Highway 13 and Highway 41, about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
“[This is an] incredibly sad time for the public safety community in Canada,” Lawrence Hartigan, acting regional deputy commissioner for Correctional Service Canada, told reporters Friday in an online news conference.
“[The officers] lost their lives while carrying out their duties transporting an offender who also passed in the accident.”
Police say the three people in the Correctional Service Canada van died at the scene. They were Ramandeep Kaur Maan, a 25-year-old woman, who lived in Winnipeg; Nicolae Serban, a 57-year-old man from Sherwood Park, Alta.; and Kiara Mooswa, a 24-year-old woman from North Battleford, Sask.
Nicolae Serban, left, and Ramandeep Kaur Maan.Handout - Correctional Service of Canada/The Canadian Press
Ms. Mooswa had been serving a seven-year sentence, beginning in 2024.
“We also mourn the loss of Kiara Mooswa, who was in our care and custody at the time of the accident, and extend our condolences to her family, friends, and community,” Talal Dakalbab, Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, said in a statement.
Police say the driver of the box truck was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Investigators continue to try to determine what happened, said RCMP Staff Sgt. James Morton.
Mr. Morton declined to say how the inmate was being transported, including whether she was in a secured area of the vehicle or was in restraints.
Correctional Service Canada, in a Thursday statement, called it a “tragic accident” that occurred during a transfer from Edmonton Institution for Women. The institution is a multi-level facility in the city’s west end that accommodates minimum and medium-security inmates.
The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, in a statement, said it’s “devastated” by the loss of its members “who were killed in a motor vehicle accident while performing their duties.”
It added, “Today, our union mourns two dedicated professionals who served with courage, commitment and honour.”
Condolences came from agencies as far away as Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as from Prime Minister Mark Carney and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
In a post to social media about the deaths, Mr. Carney said his thoughts are with those grieving the loss.
Mr. Poilievre wrote in a social-media post that he was “saddened” to learn of the correctional officers’ deaths and that they and their colleagues are owed “a debt of gratitude” for keeping Canadians safe.