Canada: 14 dead after Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus crash

A crash between a transport truck and a bus carrying a junior hockey team in western Canada has left 14 people dead and others seriously injured, Canadian police said.

I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond. https://t.co/2cIn2CTy08

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 7, 2018

The bus was carrying the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan junior hockey league to the town of Nipawin for a playoff game.

“There have been multiple fatalities, our whole community is in shock,” said Kevin Garinger, the president of the Humboldt Broncos.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said there were 28 people on the bus when the crash happened on Friday afternoon. Fourteen of them were killed, including the driver, and the other 14 had been taken to hospital, three of them in critical condition.

Garinger said parents were rushing to the scene as they struggled to cope with the tragedy.

“It’s a horrible accident, my God,” said Darren Opp, the president of the Nipawin Hawks hockey team. “It’s very, very bad.”

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Twitter that he could not imagine what the parents were going through.

Pastor Jordan Gadsby at the Apostolic Church in Nipawin said more than 100 people had gathered at the church. “Some of them are waiting to hear if their kids are alive.”

Garinger, who has one of the players living in his home, said they still do not know his fate.

“We don’t know who has passed and we don’t expect to know right away,” he said. “We know that the coroner and their office need to do their work and let families know.”

Kevin Henry, a coach who runs a hockey school in Prince Albert, said people were in shock. “It is sort of every parent’s worst nightmare.

“This is, I would think, one of the darkest days in the history of Saskatchewan, especially because hockey is so ingrained in how we grow up here,” he said.