14 dead in hockey bus crash

[Beau Vine 53845]

Terrible.  I'm honestly surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

Quote

NIPAWIN, Sask.—RCMP say 14 people are dead and 14 people were injured Friday after a truck collided with a bus carrying a junior hockey team to a playoff game in northeastern Saskatchewan.

Police say there were 28 people including the driver on board the Humboldt Broncos bus when the crash occurred at around 5 p.m. on Highway 35 north of Tisdale.

“We can now confirm fourteen people have died as a result of this collision,” RCMP said in a release early Saturday.

“The other fourteen people were sent to hospital with a variety of injuries; three of these people have injuries that are critical in nature.”

No names were released and police would not say whether the dead include players or coaches. There was no mention of the truck driver.

 

The team president said parents from across Western Canada were rushing to the scene as they struggle to cope with the tragedy.

“It’s one of the hardest days of my life,” said Kevin Garinger.

“There have been multiple fatalities — our whole community is in shock, we are grieving and we will continue to grieve throughout this ordeal as we try to work toward supporting each other.”

 

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Garinger said the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team includes players from Edmonton, Slave Lake and Airdrie in Alberta and from Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Michelle Straschnitzki, who lives in Airdrie, said her 18-year old son Ryan had been taken to hospital in Saskatoon.

“We talked to him, but he said he couldn’t feel his lower extremities so I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, noting she will go to Saskatchewan on Saturday.

“I am freaking out. I am so sad for all of the teammates and I am losing my mind.”

Offers of help have poured in across the country for families. The mother of former NHLer Colby Armstrong tweeted that families could contact her if they needed a place to stay in Saskatoon.

...

A photo tweeted early Saturday showed three players lying in side-by-side hospital beds, holding hands.

The team was on its way to play in Game 5 of a semi-final against the Nipawin Hawks.

Darren Opp, president of the Hawks, said a semi T-boned the players’ bus.

“It’s a horrible accident, my God,” he said. “It’s very, very bad.”

Opp said the coaching staff and players from the Hawks were waiting to help.

“They are sitting in the church just waiting to hear any good news,” he said. “I’ve got 50 phone calls at least saying what do you want?

“There’s uncles and moms and dads waiting to hear whether their sons and nephews are OK.

“It’s terrible. It’s absolutely terrible.”

Pastor Jordan Gadsby at the Apostolic Church in Nipawin said more than a hundred people had gathered at the church — including parents and grandparents of the players who were on the bus.

“Lots of them are waiting for information,” he said. “Some of the families have gotten information and have gone to be with their kids. Some of them are waiting to hear if their kids are alive.”

Garinger said the Broncos are a close-knit team from the small city of about 6,000 people 110 kilometres east of Saskatoon.

“This team has been an incredible rock in this community,” he said. “These young athletes. They are incredible young men, every one of them.”

Garinger, who has one of the players living in his home, said they still didn’t know his fate.

“We don’t know who has passed and we don’t expect to know right away,” he said. “We know that the coroner and their office needs to do their work and let families know.”

Garinger said all the team can do now is help the players and their families any way they can.

“We just need to try to support each other as we deal with this incredible loss to our community, to our province, to our hockey world.”

Kevin Henry, a coach who runs a hockey school in Prince Albert, said he knows players on the team.

“People are in such shock. All these young men and boys. We send our kids to play hockey. It is sort of every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.

“This is I would think one of the darkest days in the history of Saskatchewan, especially because hockey is so ingrained in how we grow up here.”

According to the president of the Nipawin Hawks — the team the Broncos were scheduled to play — the accident happened when a semi T-boned the players' bus on Friday afternoon.  (Twitter)

 

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is a Junior ‘A’ hockey league under Hockey Canada, which is part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. It’s open to North American-born players between the age of 16 and 20.

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Beau Vine

[Underdog 28391]

Saw that earlier on CNN, just horrible news. 

[Beau Vine 53845]

Holy shit, where's the rest of the bus?

[tinhead 30]

Damn, 16 - 20 year old players. Tragic.

[Trey3216 15321]

Awful story.   Apparently a gofundme Page has already raised over $1mm to help 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8795]

Sick to my stomach on this...my familys in the charter bus business and this is nightmare scenario with night time driving. I wonder when the investigation will be complete on who ran what or if any drivers fell asleep/were out of driving hours.

 

those pictures are worse than I imagine.

[Ogie Ogilthorpe 637]

Brutal. Jets Blackhawks paying tribute tonight. All wearing broncos instead of their names on their jerseys 

[Buzzrock 14859]

So this:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/live-updates-death-toll-rises-to-15-in-saskatchewan-bus-crash-1.3875403

says the bus driver was unharmed and released. But it also says he was traveling west on 335 and the bus was headed north. Looking at google maps that’s a two way stop with 335 having the stop signs. That would seem to indicate that the semi ran the stop sign and tboned the bus. I wonder why he was released.

[4th_and_18 687]

Maybe they’re hoping that he kills himself so they don’t have to spend millions prosecuting him.


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[Beau Vine 53845]

https://twitter.com/Vandecision/status/982960981885173760

https://twitter.com/Vandecision/status/982966388795953155

Damn...

[Beau Vine 53845]

Quote

HUMBOLDT, Sask. — Assistant coach Chris Beaudry was 20 minutes behind the Humboldt Broncos’ team bus when he got the call.

It was from his Nipawin Hawks counterpart saying he heard about an accident. Beaudry pulled over to try and reach Broncos on the bus.

“No one answered,” Beaudry said. “So I just hammered down and got to the scene."

His first thought was: “Not again.” Beaudry was coach of the nearby Naicam Vikings men’s senior hockey team when they were involved in a fatal bus accident in 2011.

Not even that carnage could prepare Beaudry for what he was about to face.

“This was beyond worse,” Beaudry told TSN. “It was immensely, way worse. It was nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was massive. The area of debris was yards and yards and yards.”

Beaudry said he was kept 50 yards back from the crash by the more than 50 first responders who rushed to his team’s aid. He was asked to sit in a fire truck to wait helplessly.

Beaudry said it felt like hours before he left for Nipawin Hospital with Broncos team chaplain Sean Brandow. 

“You’re lost,” Beaudry said. “I tried not to look at the scene. After you see it for a couple minutes, you know it’s not really changing.

“You look at that and you know there’s people that have died. They are your boys.”

His eyes welled up and his lip quivered.

“What do you tell their parents?” Beaudry asked. “I’m here to protect their kid and bring them home and … you don’t.”

That is why Beaudry, a hockey-obsessed farmer who grows canola, wheat, barley and peas on his family farm in St. Front, Sask., drives an hour to and from Humboldt, population 5,800, every day for practices and games.

“It’s to help the kids,” Beaudry said. “Everyone knows there is no money in junior hockey.”

Last year, Beaudry volunteered to track advanced stats and analytics for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads via video from Saskatchewan. He spent 10 days shadowing former NHL coach Dallas Eakins and the San Diego Gulls learning the ropes.

But Beaudry decided that helping coach the Broncos would be his way to pay it forward on the fourth anniversary of his sobriety, his way to “serve others.” He’s put 39,000 kilometres on his truck this season alone, his first behind the Humboldt bench with coach and general manager Darcy Haugan.

“It wasn’t about the time that it takes to drive,” Beaudry said.

That drive is why Beaudry wasn’t on the Broncos bus to begin with. Since St. Front is 100 kilometres east of Humboldt, he didn’t usually take the team bus to eastern SJHL road games in Nipawin, Melfort or Yorkton. Beaudry said that by the time the Broncos showered and eat after those road games, he could have been nearly home.

Friday turned out to be the second time he narrowly escaped harm. In 2011 with Naicam, Beaudry was the only person on the bus injured when a drunk driver hit the bus head-on doing 135 kilometres per hour. 

“We were 30 seconds [away] from every player on the team being out in front of the bus taking a leak when they hit us,” Beaudry explained. “The people that hit us died.”

Beaudry ended up with compartment syndrome in his leg. On Friday night, Beaudry would likely have been sitting near Haugen and fellow assistant coach Mark Cross, who were among the 15 to perish, alongside radio broadcaster Tyler Bieber and bus driver Glen Doerksen.

Friday night’s accident will leave an everlasting scar on Beaudry and the hockey world.

When he arrived at Nipawin Hospital, the RCMP asked him to help put together the bus passenger manifest so they could begin to sort out the survivors.

While at the hospital, Beaudry fielded anguishing calls from player’s parents who reached out in desperation for answers that he didn’t have to give them. It took hours to sort through the wreckage and identify players, plus they were airlifted to different hospitals.

By then news about the accident started to spread, first in rural Saskatchewan and then around the world.

“The support has been unbelievable,” Beaudry said. “Everyone talks about the hockey community and how good the people are in it, but you don’t understand it unless you live it. From the water boy, to the media to the coach and players, everyone is your brother.”

Saturday Beaudry made the drive into Saskatoon to see survivors.

“The hospital brought my spirits up, to see guys happy when I came in,” Beaudry said. “They were under a lot of medication, but they would hear my voice and I would see a hand reach out. I would just pray, hold their hand.” 

Then he drove back to Humboldt’s Elgar Petersen Arena to grieve and help pick up the pieces as one who was somehow spared.

 

[RPM 26167]

[Deej 76396]

HUMBOLDT, Sask. — Assistant coach Chris Beaudry was 20 minutes behind the Humboldt Broncos’ team bus when he got the call.

It was from his Nipawin Hawks counterpart saying he heard about an accident. Beaudry pulled over to try and reach Broncos on the bus.

“No one answered,” Beaudry said. “So I just hammered down and got to the scene."

His first thought was: “Not again.” Beaudry was coach of the nearby Naicam Vikings men’s senior hockey team when they were involved in a fatal bus accident in 2011.

Not even that carnage could prepare Beaudry for what he was about to face.

“This was beyond worse,” Beaudry told TSN. “It was immensely, way worse. It was nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was massive. The area of debris was yards and yards and yards.”

Beaudry said he was kept 50 yards back from the crash by the more than 50 first responders who rushed to his team’s aid. He was asked to sit in a fire truck to wait helplessly.

Beaudry said it felt like hours before he left for Nipawin Hospital with Broncos team chaplain Sean Brandow. 

“You’re lost,” Beaudry said. “I tried not to look at the scene. After you see it for a couple minutes, you know it’s not really changing.

“You look at that and you know there’s people that have died. They are your boys.”

His eyes welled up and his lip quivered.

“What do you tell their parents?” Beaudry asked. “I’m here to protect their kid and bring them home and … you don’t.”

That is why Beaudry, a hockey-obsessed farmer who grows canola, wheat, barley and peas on his family farm in St. Front, Sask., drives an hour to and from Humboldt, population 5,800, every day for practices and games.

“It’s to help the kids,” Beaudry said. “Everyone knows there is no money in junior hockey.”

Last year, Beaudry volunteered to track advanced stats and analytics for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads via video from Saskatchewan. He spent 10 days shadowing former NHL coach Dallas Eakins and the San Diego Gulls learning the ropes.

But Beaudry decided that helping coach the Broncos would be his way to pay it forward on the fourth anniversary of his sobriety, his way to “serve others.” He’s put 39,000 kilometres on his truck this season alone, his first behind the Humboldt bench with coach and general manager Darcy Haugan.

“It wasn’t about the time that it takes to drive,” Beaudry said.

That drive is why Beaudry wasn’t on the Broncos bus to begin with. Since St. Front is 100 kilometres east of Humboldt, he didn’t usually take the team bus to eastern SJHL road games in Nipawin, Melfort or Yorkton. Beaudry said that by the time the Broncos showered and eat after those road games, he could have been nearly home.

Friday turned out to be the second time he narrowly escaped harm. In 2011 with Naicam, Beaudry was the only person on the bus injured when a drunk driver hit the bus head-on doing 135 kilometres per hour. 

“We were 30 seconds [away] from every player on the team being out in front of the bus taking a leak when they hit us,” Beaudry explained. “The people that hit us died.”

Beaudry ended up with compartment syndrome in his leg. On Friday night, Beaudry would likely have been sitting near Haugen and fellow assistant coach Mark Cross, who were among the 15 to perish, alongside radio broadcaster Tyler Bieber and bus driver Glen Doerksen.

Friday night’s accident will leave an everlasting scar on Beaudry and the hockey world.

When he arrived at Nipawin Hospital, the RCMP asked him to help put together the bus passenger manifest so they could begin to sort out the survivors.

While at the hospital, Beaudry fielded anguishing calls from player’s parents who reached out in desperation for answers that he didn’t have to give them. It took hours to sort through the wreckage and identify players, plus they were airlifted to different hospitals.

By then news about the accident started to spread, first in rural Saskatchewan and then around the world.

“The support has been unbelievable,” Beaudry said. “Everyone talks about the hockey community and how good the people are in it, but you don’t understand it unless you live it. From the water boy, to the media to the coach and players, everyone is your brother.”

Saturday Beaudry made the drive into Saskatoon to see survivors.

“The hospital brought my spirits up, to see guys happy when I came in,” Beaudry said. “They were under a lot of medication, but they would hear my voice and I would see a hand reach out. I would just pray, hold their hand.” 

Then he drove back to Humboldt’s Elgar Petersen Arena to grieve and help pick up the pieces as one who was somehow spared.

 
So, never hire Chris Beaudry as a coach?