Estevan Bruins’ bus will stop at fatal collision site
We’ve got to go right through there, almost exactly a week after it happened
The Estevan Bruins will stop to pay tribute to the Humboldt Broncos on Friday.
En route to Nipawin, where the SJHL’s championship series begins Saturday, the Bruins plan to pull over near the intersection where a transport truck collided with the Broncos’ bus on April 6. Sixteen people died as a result of the crash 30 kilometres north of Tisdale.
“We’ve got to go right through there, almost exactly a week after it happened,” Broncos head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood said. “The idea is to pull over and pay tribute to these people.
“It gives our staff and players an opportunity to pay tribute to some friends and colleagues. As well, it allows us to confront the emotion rather than look out the corners of our eyes at the spot as we drive by in the bus and allow those feelings to linger and fester in the background.
“We need to confront them and we need to exorcise any challenges that they bring. To me, that’s the only way to make sure that we know what the guys are feeling and thinking — to bring it to the forefront so that we can, in turn, deal with it.”
The Bruins clinched a berth in the league final April 5, when they defeated the host Battlefords North Stars 6-2 to end a best-ofseven semifinal in five games.
The next night, the Broncos were to visit Nipawin for Game 5 of the other semifinal. The Hawks led the series 3-1.
On Wednesday, members of the SJHL’s board of governors held a conference call to decide how to handle the remainder of the season. The unanimous conclusion was to continue, with Nipawin facing Estevan in the best-of-seven Canalta Cup.
The Bruins are mourning two of their former players, Darcy Haugan and Mark Cross. Haugan, the Broncos’ head coach, and Cross, an assistant coach, were killed in the crash. Haugan also coached the Bruins.
“Mark was a Bill Shinske Ethics Award winner, which is a very prestigious award in our organization,” Lewgood said. “It goes to one of the people deemed the most high-character players on the team. Mark and Darcy have both left an impact in the community, in different ways and at different times.”