‘Tears keep coming’
Canada hockey crash kills 15
The captain, the coach and five other members of a junior hockey team were among 15 people killed when a tractor-trailer Tboned a playoffs-bound bus in western Canada, shocking the sports world.
The impact sheered the top off the Humboldt Broncos’ bus and ripped apart the semi, scattering its contents across the snowy landscape of Highway 35 in tiny Tisdale, Saskatchewan, 131 miles north of Saskatoon.
Broncos head coach and married father of two Darcy Haugan (inset); captain Logan Schatz, 20; defenseman Stephen Wack, 21; radio play-by-play announcer Tyler Bieber; and volunteer statistician Brody Hinz were among the dead in Friday’s crash.
“My brother didn’t make it,” Haugan’s sister wrote on Twitter.
“He will always be a great man in our hearts . . . The tears just keep coming.”
Haugan’s wife, Christina, posted a picture of their family on Facebook, writing of a previous goodbye that “it seemed so incredibly sad as we missed you so much . . . but now it is forever — does not seem real or right or fair.”
Myles Shumlanki rushed to the scene after a desperate call from his son, Broncos player Nick Shumlanski, who survived.
“As soon as I came, I knew that it was a disaster,” Myles told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “People were getting blankets. You were taking your jackets. You were doing anything to cover these boys. They were in snow and ice and it was very cold . . . They were in very bad shape.”
The bus, headed to Game 5 of the semifinals against the Nipawin Hawks, had 29 people aboard, 14 of whom were hurt, including Derek Patter, Greyson Cameron and Nick Shumlanski, who were later snapped holding hands as they laid side by side in hospital beds.
At least three of the survivors were in critical condition, and one player appeared to have broken his back, a parent told the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
Ryan Straschnitzki, was “alive and breathing, and from what we know he has a broken back, and as of now, can’t feel anything from his waist down,” his dad Tom told the CBC.
“I think he’s still in shock, still asking how everyone is and who perished and who didn’t.”
The truck driver, who was not hurt, was released without charges. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
An online fundraiser for the victims had raised $2.1 million by Saturday afternoon, with NHL teams like the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs kicking in $10,000 each, and other teams planning similar donations.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock, a Saskatchewan native, choked back tears as he spoke of the tragedy Saturday morning.
“I can’t even imagine being a parent, or the wife, or the kids at home, going through something like this,” Babcock said. “The hockey world is an unbelievable world . . . you can’t make up for loss, you just can’t. It’s got to rip the heart out of your chest.”
Broncos President Kevin Garinger said, “Everything about this tragedy is unprecedented and overwhelming.”