Colleen Fullerton was 67 and had just come home from Scotland. She and her husband John, 70, were already planning more trips. On Sunday, March 1, 2026, they set out for the Dominican Republic. By nightfall, she was dead and he was in an intensive care unit awaiting spinal surgery.
Their bus, carrying tourists from Punta Cana International Airport to hotels, slid across a road in the La Romana tourist area, east of the capital, Santo Domingo. Authorities said two Canadians died and 13 people were hurt. Local media first counted at least 19 injured.
The Dominican Republic’s National Health Service put the injured at eight men and five women, aged 37 to 72. Two were moved to a specialized trauma hospital because of their condition. The group had been headed to a hotel in the coastal town of Juan Dolio.
A family kept in the dark
Colleen and John, from Manitoba, had booked through Sunwing Vacations, a WestJet company. The bus was run by a third-party provider, NexusTours. Their daughter Amanda Fullerton learned of the crash that night from her uncle, who was travelling with them and phoned from his own hospital bed.
“All he knew was that my dad was covered in blood and my mother was unconscious,” Amanda told CTV News.
She was later told her mother had died on impact. The family says they heard nothing from the government, the embassies, the airline or the tour group. They called police themselves, and on Monday Selkirk RCMP gave them official word of Colleen’s death.
“My dad’s gonna find out in the hospital all alone that my mom’s gone,” Amanda said through tears.
Brittany Fullerton, John’s granddaughter, said she had been phoning the consulate and embassies nearly every hour. “We’ve had to dig and claw information out of them,” she said. She planned to fly to the Dominican Republic to be with her grandfather.
The family described Colleen as a fearless adventurer. “Her grandkids were her life,” Amanda said. “She made holidays special. She was mom. She was grandma.” John runs his own mechanic shop and is active in the community.
“We deserved a phone call from them,” Amanda said of the companies. “My mom was important enough to let us know that we’ve lost her.”
What the company and Ottawa said
Sunwing confirmed the bus was involved in a traffic incident with casualties. “Our hearts are with the families and loved ones of those affected during this incredibly difficult time,” its statement read. The company said it was in close contact with NexusTours and local authorities, and that travel to Punta Cana continued as scheduled. A spokesperson told CTV News that Sunwing and NexusTours would pay medical, burial and travel costs, including the cost of bringing the dead home.
The Canadian Embassy said on social media that staff were giving consular help, without saying how many Canadians were aboard. Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Jérémie Bérubé said no further details could be released, and another spokesperson cited privacy.
The bus that almost carried another couple
Leigh Whiting, 52, of Georgetown, Ont., was on a weeklong Sunwing holiday for her 33rd anniversary. She had decided at the last minute to hire a private van from the airport, to skip the extra resort stops a shuttle would make. The next day she learned the shuttle had crashed.
“Still can’t believe that was the bus we were supposed to be on,” she said, reached in Boca Chica. She thought about the children who might have been aboard. Her own drive had been “a bit crazy and a bit nerve-racking,” she said, and she had noticed holes in guardrails along the road. For the rest of her stay she planned to skip excursions.
The World Health Organization ranks the Dominican Republic among the countries with the highest traffic fatality rates in the world.
Sources
- Sunwing says 'hearts are with families' affected by bus crash in Dominican
- Manitoba woman killed, husband hospitalized in Dominican Republic bus crash
- Two Canadians killed in bus crash in Dominican Republic
