Humboldt Broncos Bus Accident

Uncategorized 52 Comments

I just got online to learn the news. Our sympathies are extended to all the families and players affected. (Updates at the link, click the Listen Live  button for live local radio.)

RCMP say there are multiple deaths after a crash involving a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey Team.

 

The Humboldt Broncos team bus was involved in a collision with a semi-trailer late Friday afternoon.

 

The team was on its way to Nipawin for a playoff game, which has now been cancelled.

 

RCMP have also confirmed multiple injuries.

 

No confirmed numbers have been provided.

Evening update:

My apologies for not updating sooner – picking up more information via commentors (just click and read), including this thread at Agriville.com that discusses  the (problematic)  intersection.

The numbers of dead and injured are widely reported, doing so here would be redundant at this point. A Go Fund Me page has been activated here.

A Google street view photo of the intersection. ( h/t PabloNH “note the crosses”. )

 

52 Replies to “Humboldt Broncos Bus Accident”

  1. It sounds trite, but “thoughts and prayers”.

    No other words….so sad for these families.

    SaskatchewanStrong

  2. Today is one of those days…..

    Thinking of all the families involved and the city of Humboldt

    Take care of each other this weekend

    All of Canada is with you

  3. Extremely sad news; I can’t begin to make sense of why these horrible tradgedies happen. My heartfelt condolences go out to the community that loved watching the boys play hockey, the staff, and ofcourse with the parents and family and friends. Devastating

  6. This accident is so horrifically tragic that it made lead story on Fox News. They are reporting 14 deceased.

    My thoughts are with the families and all those left to deal with the trauma. Utterly sad.

  7. Here in ontario I had just watched the ohl game sault st marie greyhounds tie up the series against my local team
    The owen sound attack in ssm.
    When I put it on the news they were reporting the accident.
    My thoughts and prayers to the families & community for this terrible loss.

  8. Just woke up to this — it’s actually on the BBC and in the Guardian…
    What a nightmare. I can’t even imagine.
    I’ll watch this space and if you have any links for donations or whathaveyou I’ll share on social media

    1. How often has the BBC covered the WHL? This is clearly the beginning of an organized effort to push for self driving cars.

      Hey, no one “needs” to drive. You have heard it all before, now it is all going to be applied to cars, “if it will save just one precious life, won’t someone please think of the children”.

  9. 14 confirmed dead and 14 hospitalized.
    Will remember them in my prayers tonight.

  11. Feel so helpless when these things happen. Keep imagining myself in the shoes of those parents today. Enough to make a grown man cry.

    1. Please don’t send money to a GoFundMe: (1) we have no idea who controls any individual account or where the money will go, and (2) GoFundMe gets a cut. If you wish to contribute, give directly to the family (and not someone who claims to be a member of the family).

  14. Sad, there are no words. Can’t imagine the pain the parents and families are going through.

  15. Hallow feeling.

    14+ families reeling with the loss of their sons, grandsons.

    14+ families dealing with their sons, grandsons recovering in hospital, hoping they pull through and recover.

    The Canadian hockey community is stunned, travelling to games is a right of passage, the road to hopes of going further, stronger, faster. Cut short.

    For the driver of the semi, his/her family and the trucking community as well.

    May healing come quickly and thoroughly.

  16. “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and make perpetual Light to shine upon them.”

    1. Amen!

      Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
      1st Saint Nicolaas Army
      Army Group ‘True North’

    2. Amen!

      Our prayers also to all the families, and friends. There will be a lot of pain for all.

  17. Any description of this truck accident?

    Question one; did it occur with a parked truck during prayer time? If the truck driver is a person of no description, we will have at least half the answer right there.

  18. It’s a tragedy beyond words.

    This is the 2nd one of these. The Swift Current Broncos met the same fate.

    I saw Humboldt play a few years back. Was in town and went to a playoff game. Good hockey.

  19. Really sad. I was 14 years old in Swift Current when the Swift Current Broncos had their bus accident in 1986. So I can imagine what Humboldt is going through.

  20. Many if not most of these young men would be what we so often describe as our ‘best and brightest’. You have to be, in order to work your way into these leagues. They have to have good marks in school, usually come from tight, close knit families who pour incredible amounts of emotional and financial resources into their kids dream. The kids themselves have to have self-discipline (often in short supply these days), dedication and purpose. Such a huge loss for their families, their community and the country as a whole. Who knows what achievement any one of them might have attained.

    A number of years ago, a prominent player on our local team and a friend were killed in a single vehicle accident. Nearly 3,000 people turned out for his memorial, filling the arena – imagine the impact this will have in their community.

    I feel too for the truck driver and his family. Were I in his shoes, I’d almost rather die myself than have to live with the guilt (warranted or not) of this unspeakable tragedy. Hold him in your prayers, too.

  21. All I can do is offer prayers for the afflicted families. That they can find some peace or solace in their time of loss and horror. And if there are any funds set-up, I will dutifully contribute

    1. Go fund me link above. They were hoping to raise $50K, heard on the Roy Green Show while he was interviewing Sheldon Kennedy who was on that bus cash in ’86 where 4 of his teammates were killed, that there was already $750,000 raise worldwide. Even Trump called Trudeau to wish condolences.

      Huge loss, touching the world.

      1. Has Justin said anything?

        I took a cursory look through Trump’s Twitter feed. One would be surprised (or not) to see the jack@$$es polluting that feed with their nonsense. I guess one can’t be civil these days.

        Considering the young men who perished, my father pointed out that this sort of reportage was a weekly occurrence during WWI.

        More sobering thoughts …

  23. The pictures look like a highway, and a secondary road. I suspect there is a stop sign on the secondary road, and that there is a hill we cannot see in the picture (behind the camera man).

    One of the vehicles comes to a stop, sees no one, starts making left turn.
    Second vehicle, fully loaded, crests hill. A super-B legal load is 60 tons of clean grain, but you can get much more on if you do not fear scales, and actually want to make profit. Or, double log books so you can work more hours a day.

    This gives a stopping distance for the semi of several hundred meters/yards. Maybe a full kilometer. If the guy was not just asleep.

    I am assuming both bus and semi have 13 speed Eaton Fuller transmissions.
    This is a 4 speed transmission, with an additional low gear, and a three position selector switch.
    low -> 1, 2, 3, 4, switch, (out of first range, you never use low again) 1, 2, 3, 4, switch, 1, 2, 3, 4

    Starting from stop, you use low gear when loaded. Low gear you do not use throttle to start; so it will take a while for something long like a bus or semi to clear the one lane when making a left and getting fully into the destination lane. Making a corner, there will be at least one shift, possibly two before you are complete.

    1. So, a well known terrible intersection. Sounds like the WHL should start forbidding use of that highway. Sounds as bad as highway 16 where the people from Dalmeny are always killing themselves everyone else.

      Is there a list all the junctions in the province, sorted by number of traffic fatalities at that junction?

      FYI, the self driving car people are going to start using events like this, just as the hoplophobes use school shootings… Maybe it has already started, as this traffic accident is international news…

  26. The gofundme page is closing on on 1.5 million dollars. I was watching the twitter feed last night when the page first got tweeted out they had a goal of 5000 dollars. I never thought the amount would climb like it has.

  27. Sorry not trying to derail the thread but…

    Why was grain truck my first thought?

    1. There are lot of grain trucks on the roads that last few weeks. The trains are moving grain and the elevators are open even on the weekends.

  28. There’s a aerial shot of the accident scene now.
    From the scrape marks and where the vehicles wound up it’s pretty easy to figure out what happened.
    The semi was westbound on 335 and must have blown right through the stop sign, hitting the bus that was heading north on 35. The force of the impact spun it right around and ripped it open like a can opener.

      1. I noticed those too when I was looking for the location on Google Earth. Apparently something just like this has happened before at that location, which is probably the stop signs had flashing lights added.

  30. I stand corrected.
    The news I’m hearing says it was a Peet moss truck not grain.

  31. God Bless you all, you’ve been like a reporters all day, on this story.
    Ken, your 10:08 pm flash only lasts 2 seconds then the page goes white! Oh well thanks for trying.

  32. I have driven through that intersection several times. There is no hill in either direction. The ground is flat for miles in either direction. The trees are no excuse either. There are stop signs on the east west highway.
    I have personally been run off the road by tractor trailer grain trucks on two occasions. Once I only had to go onto the shoulder. The other time we drove straight into the ditch to avoid the collision. Luckily there was no approach to slam into.
    Both times the drivers slowed down just enough to turn onto the road in front of us. I am sure they would have barrelled through at speed if they weren’t turning.
    I don’t know if it was poor eyesite, alcohol, drugs, or fatigue, but there are too many guys driving big rigs carelessly.
    Does anybody know if farmers have to get their Class 1 License to drive these big grain trucks?

    1. This was not a grain truck, but a regular commercial truck hauling bales pf peat moss. So the driver will have had to have his full Class 1 or A1. Not sure, as I never owned a semi and so did not get a license.

      Just guessing, but I suspect that the truck did not come to a stop but went through the intersection and hit the bus which was obscured by the trees of the farm yard on the truck’s left side.

      1. At 5:40 p.m. just a few days after the equinox, the semi driver would have been staring straight into the sun. And the glare off the snow would have been extreme as well.

        Not an excuse, but possibly a factor.

  33. My theory as to why the west bound semi-truck blew that stop sign is this:

    The sign is attached to a light standard, not placed standing along like they normally are.

    Not saying that is a valid excuse to miss it.

    Am saying that they better move the damn thing. The human brain isn’t always clicking along at 100%, so any deviation from what is expected may cause issues.

    1. After some sleep… is there a warning ‘Stop sign ahead’ sign? Rumble strips?

      With this intersections history, one would hope there is.

      Again, not making excuses for driver necessarily, just hoping to avoid this from ever happening again.

      It really affects all of our sleep, eh?

      God Bless Humboldt.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation