A couple of seconds either way and we’d all be talking about something else.
Instead, the whole country has been focused on a horribly fateful moment in Saskatchewan last Friday that snuffed out the lives of 15 people on their way to a hockey game.
The tragic bus and semi-truck crash had likely already happened when the puck dropped for the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds’ series opener against the Lethbridge Hurricanes at Chilliwack’s Prospera Centre. Hope resident Dawson Pelletier was in goal for the T-Birds and his father, Brad, was in the stands.
“During the game, the tweets started coming out, like ‘Pray for them. What a tragedy.’ But I didn’t really know all of it until we got home,” Brad said on Tuesday.
On Easter Sunday, Dawson had ridden the team bus back from Prince George. When they reached Hope, the driver blasted the horn to announce the team’s major midget provincial championship win.
Team buses are rolling mini-communities, ubiquitous on Canadian roadways and most often safe. Shelley Empey, a lab technician at Fraser Canyon Hospital, grew up in Saskatoon and had plenty of experience on buses for volleyball and soccer.
“It is a way of life on the prairies,” she said, adding, “We nearly rear-ended a vehicle when our driver was fatigued and didn’t notice the brake lights of the vehicle in front of us.
“I remember so well and cherish all of the memories of playing team sports and all the laughs and tight bonds that form,” Empey said on Monday. “Those teammates become your tribe and life-long friends.
“We’ve gone to each others’ weddings and had the pleasure of watching each others’ kids grow up,” she said. “These boys that survived will have that — but there will always be sadness with those moments.”
Empey said she first heard of the Humboldt Broncos’ bus crash when she was visiting her friends Wayne and Pattie Desjardins on Saturday evening. The Desjardins also hail from Saskatchewan.
“I felt an immediate sadness and thought immediately how lucky we were in Hope when we had the major highway collision [in late February; two semis, two buses and two other vehicles], that there were no fatalities. I was on duty that night.”
Pattie, the Hope Standard’s advertising representative, grew up in Rosthern, which she figured is about an hour west of Humboldt.
“I just found out that the bus driver had graduated from Rosthern Junior College,” she said, Tuesday. “It was the other high school in town.”
Pattie maintains her Saskatchewan roots and said she started hearing of the crash on Friday night, through her social media contacts back home.
“Humboldt is about the same size as Hope,” she said. “In small town Saskatchewan, hockey is life. Everyone knows the players.”
Like much of Canada and the world, Dawson Pelletier’s T-Birds had learned about the scope of the Broncos’ bus crash overnight and team management brought together a plan for a pre-game memorial for Saturday’s match.
After the warm-up, players, coaching staff and officials gathered at centre ice. Following direction from their team manager, said Dawson, players from both teams intermingled on the circle for a tribute to the Broncos, whose team photo was displayed on the arena’s video screen.
The moment of silence was protracted — and palpable.
“I thought it was good,” Dawson said. “We were all together, showing our support.”
Fans added to the support, donating $1,310 to a GoFundMe drive that has garnered more than $7.3 million so far for victims of the crash.
Three months earlier, at the Mac’s midget tournament in Calgary, Dawson had played against one of the young men killed in the bus crash. The AAA midget Regina Pat Canadians’ Adam Herold was the team’s captain at the Mac’s event and was later called up to the Humboldt junior Broncos. Herold’s team beat the T-Birds 3-2 in the quarter-final and went on to win the 25-team tournament.
“Dawson remembers looking the kid in the eye and shaking his hand,” Brad said. “It hits pretty close to home. You’re competing on the ice but you’re brothers in the sport.”
In the coming months, steps will be taken to make trucks, buses and roads even safer. For certain, the intersection at the scene of the crash will get a lot of attention. Tragedies have a way of spurring changes.
Long-time Fraser Valley residents may recall numerous level crossings on Highway #1 in the Chilliwack area before the 1990s, including a level railway crossing. All of those crossings have now been elevated or terminated.
Closer to home, the ambulance crash near the Peter’s Reserve in Laidlaw brought about significant improvements at the rock bluffs. In the 25 years since paramedic Carol Schlamp’s passing, the added lighting and concrete barriers have worked to prevent similar incidents.
Transportation officials must give their best, in time and capital, to make things safer for future generations of the travelling public.
In the meantime, Canadians are opening their hearts and their wallets to support the devastated community of Humboldt. When tragedy strikes, we know how to respond.
Is there more to this story?
emelie.peacock@hopestandard.com
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