FORMER NHLER JOSEPH LIVING ‘EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE’
Father raced to scene of crash that claimed the life of his 20-year-old son and 14 others
Having spent three years travelling as a member of the Seattle Thunderbirds, Chris Joseph was keenly aware of the perils of winter driving across Western Canada.
While playing junior hockey, his season was interrupted in 1986 by the Swift Current Broncos bus crash that killed four players and halted league play.
On Friday, the retired NHLer lived out his worst fears as news broke of a bus crash involving his son’s Humboldt Broncos hockey club.
Alerted to the collision with a truck around dinnertime in Edmonton, Joseph and his wife Andrea jumped in their vehicle and headed east toward the crash outside Tisdale, Sask., without any details of their son’s condition.
They prayed their phones would ring with good news during the seven-hour drive. Dozens of other families clung to similar hopes.
“The last conversation (Chris) had with someone was that Jaxon was in hospital in Saskatoon, so we went to bed thinking everything was OK,” said Chris Joseph’s brother Mike, who lives in Calgary.
“To wake up and hear he didn’t make it was devastating.”
So chaotic was the scene, police struggled late into the night trying to piece together the fate of all 29 on board, eventually determining 15 had died and 14 were injured, some critically.
Of all the emotions running through the family, Mike insists anger over the misinformation is not one of them.
“Everybody on scene was just trying to do their best,” Mike said.
“I don’t think anybody is pointing the finger of blame. From the picture I saw, it looks like all the boys dyed their hair ( blond), so you can see how it could be confusing to identify people as part of the scene. It just goes to show how devastating, and what the scene must have been like.”
The Broncos were on their way to Nipawin, Sask., to play Game 5 of their Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff series late Friday afternoon.
They had dyed their hair as part of a long-standing hockey tradition intended to bind teams closer together.
One can’t fathom how quickly the excitement and anticipation of their game, scheduled for hours later that night, gave way to horror as the survivors fought for their lives.
“It’s every parent’s nightmare. My brother’s and his wife’s whole world revolved around their kids,” Mike said. “It’s just so hard to fathom as his son was the star of the team and was having the best season ever as a 20-yearold and was loving it and was so happy.
“Now he’s gone and we’re just waiting for any updates from family and what to do next.”
Jaxon Joseph had been traded to Humboldt earlier in the season from Melfort. He was the team’s leading playoff scorer with seven goals and five assists in nine games, sitting among the SJHL’s playoff leaders.
With only five points in 16 games in Melfort to start the season, his trade sparked a dramatic turnaround in his hockey career. Jaxon put up 25 goals in his next 38 games as a beaming Bronco.
You can imagine how proud his father — who played for seven NHL teams over 14 seasons, including a long tenure with the Edmonton Oilers and two stints with his hometown Vancouver Canucks — was of his son.
“He had a tough year last year and everyone was so excited because he was playing so well and was having so much fun this year,” said Mike, who grew up in Burnaby, B.C., with Joe Sakic, who was involved in Swift Current’s 1986 bus crash.
“It has been a tough day for the Joseph family.”
It’s just so hard to fathom as his son was the star of the team and was having the best season ever as a 20-year-old and was loving it and was so happy.