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Two people are in hospital following a head-on collision involving a packed charter coach that temporarily shut down the Sea to Sky Highway.

A Pacific Coach Lines bus and a jeep collided at about 10:30 a.m. Witnesses tell Global News the bus was driving quite fast down a hill when it passed some vehicles. As the bus reached the bottom of the hill and started to climb back up, a jeep going southbound lost control and started to fishtail. Witnesses say the jeep then clipped the bus, which lost control and rode up onto the concrete barrier at the side of the road.

The coach operator was airlifted to hospital, while the other driver was taken away in an ambulance.

WATCH: Randene Neill explains how the province is on the verge of trying to make the roadway safer.



There were about 50 passengers on the bus at the time, none of whom were injured in the crash, said Squamish RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Jolaine Percival.

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Donna Williams, who was on her way to Vancouver, helped pull some of the bus passengers out of the coach following the crash.

“There was debris all over the road,” she said.

Williams helped escort people away from the crash after they climbed out of the windows and stood on the side of the highway.

“They didn’t have many visible injuries that I could see,” she said. “Unfortunately the driver was injured. That’s why [the passengers] couldn’t escape from the front of the bus.”

Williams said the passengers were tourists from places such as Hawaii and the U.K. There were some children on board as well.

WATCH: Donna Williams joins Robin Stickley on the Noon News Hour:



The bus was on the Whistler Express route and left Vancouver Airport at 8:30 a.m.

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The investigation is ongoing and any witnesses who have not already spoken with police are asked to contact Sea-to-Sky Traffic Services at 604-892-6100.

– With files from The Canadian Press