Bus carrying junior hockey team and lorry collide leaving 15 dead
FIFTEEN PEOPLE were killed and 14 others injured when a lorry collided with a bus carrying a junior hockey team to a playoff game in western Canada, authorities have said.
A semi-trailer slammed into the bus carrying the team in a catastrophic collision that a doctor compared to an airstrike as the vehicles were left obliterated in the snow.
The crash sent shock waves of grief through the team’s small hometown and a country united by the national sport.
As details of the accident on a highway in Saskatchewan emerged, Canadians were moved to tears on Saturday as they learned of the identities of the deceased on a bus driving the Humboldt Broncos hockey team to a crucial playoff game.
“An entire country is in shock and mourning,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare. No one should ever have to see their child leave to play the sport they love and never come back.”
The bus had 29 passengers, including the driver, when it crashed about 5pm on Highway 35, Canadian police said.
Among the dead are Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan, team captain Logan Schatz and radio announcer Tyler Bieber.
Authorities earlier said three were in critical but later provided an update to say 15 have now died.
Canadian police said the truck driver was initially detained but has since been released and provided with mental health assistance.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said it is too early to state a cause for the crash.
In a tweet, US President Donald Trump said he called Mr Trudeau to offer his condolences to the families of victims.
Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks, who the Broncos were set to play against, said: “It’s a horrible accident, my God.”
Hassan Masri, an emergency room doctor at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital who has done work in war-torn Syria, said the crash reminded him of an airstrike. Photographs of the wreckage showed the twisted trailer with most of its wheels in the air and the bus on its side and its back portion destroyed.