Humboldt Broncos bus crash chosen as top story of 2018
A deadly bus crash that united a hockey-mad country in grief and spurred people to leave sticks on porches from coast to coast has been selected as Canada’s News Story of the Year.
The Canadian Press annual survey of newsrooms across the country saw 53 out of 129 editors cast their votes for the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in rural Saskatchewan as the most compelling story of 2018.
The legalization of recreational cannabis in October came a close second with 51 votes.
“Although cannabis is landmark legislation, legalization arrived mostly with a shrug,” wrote Murray Wood, provincial news director with Saskatchewan radio stations CJME and CKOM.
“No story affected Canadians in 2018 more than the Hum- boldt Broncos bus crash.”
The junior hockey team was on its way to a playoff game when its bus and a semitruck collided at a crossroads on April 6. Sixteen people were killed. Another 13 were injured.
The crash made headlines around the world and struck a chord with hockey-loving Canadians, many of whom saw themselves and their children in the young players and their grieving families.
Some of the players were changing into suits and others were texting girlfriends as the Junior A team’s bus headed to Nipawin for a matchup against the Hawks. It was at an intersection just north of Tisdale where the bus and a truck carrying a load of peat moss collided. Motorists who stopped to help, as well as some parents who were also on their way to the game, were met with a cha- otic, gruesome scene. Those who survived were sent to nearby hospitals, the dead to a makeshift morgue.
Aerial pictures of the devastation are seared into the nation’s memory.
“Almost everyone in this country has climbed onto a bus with their peers or put a child on a bus for an out-of-town trip,” wrote Tim Switzer, managing editor of the Regina Leader-Post newspaper. “Many people could relate.”
Ten players along with the team’s coach, an assistant coach, trainer, radio play-byplay announcer, statistician and the bus driver were killed. Of the injured, two players were paralyzed and two received serious brain injuries.
Canadians and others around the world started leaving hockey sticks on their front porches to honour the team.